"Another great week of learning!" is how I can characterize Week 6 of the WebSkills course. In my opinion the two primary topics of discussion, Large Classes and PowerPoint, complimented each other exceptionally well. As class sizes get larger, I think the tendency can sometimes be for teachers to move toward a teacher-directed approach where information is "delivered" to the students. In such a setting, PowerPoint can end up being used as a tool for presenting information and concepts to students, but not actually engaging them in the information and concepts. This is problematic, as it diminishes the quality of educational experiences being produced. Thus, the quality of an educational environment does not necessarily degrade when the number of students is going up, but it does degrade if a teacher decides to stop creating an environment of interaction.
Undoubtedly larger class sizes present challenges for interaction, but they also produce opportunities! As was discussed in my previous blog about Project-Based Learning (PBL), the key to successful language classrooms is engagement and interaction. It is essential (especially in a large class where the tendency is for the teacher to dominate the discussion) that the principles of PBL prevail. This means that the development and delivery of PowerPoint presentations needs to be informed by the notion of "student engagement through interaction." After reading this week's material and developing an interactive PowerPoint myself, I have become convinced that it is possible for all teachers to design and implement PowerPoint presentations that facilitate student engagement in learning. Using the power of interactivity, we can structure digital presentations such that they involve students in PBL environments and provide guidance toward higher levels cognitive thinking. ConcepTests, QuickWrite activities, hyperlinks/jumps, student responses, blank slides, trivia games, and interactive stories are just some of the many practical ideas that can help us achieve the goal of interactivity.
The aforementioned ideas, along with ideas and concepts gleaned from previous weeks, continue to assist me as I refine my final project plans. My Delicious.com page has started to become a repository of ideas - an accumulation of links to great digital resources that will help make my technology-inspired change a reality! I am most excited about planning and implementing a digital avatar presentation project. This week I have been locating and reading literature that supports the notion that digital avatars might be helpful for language learning. I want to have a good understanding of this emerging area of research. Furthermore, I have been busy locating and evaluating online tools that will allow students to build avatars in a safe and user friendly environment. A central component of my planning has been designing an initial rubric that will clearly reflect the desired outcomes and expectations of the activity. This rubric will be open to revision once it is introduced to the students, but I want to make sure that I have a basic framework to work from. By developing a basic framework I can ensure that that my technology-inspired change works towards specific curriculum objectives and ESL benchmark objectives established by my school district. There are many factors to consider as I work through the planning stages! I realize that my technology-inspired change is not just about implementing one activity, it is about a change in teaching style and approach. That being said, I'm already thinking about follow-up activities for my avatar project. During and after the avatar presentations there will be many questions and answers, which means there will be dialog, communication and interaction! This excites me, so I'm thinking of ways to capitalize on these rich learning opportunities to further the objective of language development.
Stephen
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Week 5 - Some Reflective Musings on Project-Based Learning, WebQuests, and Rubrics
This week's readings and discussions have prompted me to consider my past, present, and future experiences as a teacher. The result has been some musings that revolve around concepts and ideas associated with Project-Based Learning, WebQuests, and Rubrics.
As a general rule, the K-6 students that I work with are very inquisitive. Thus, I'm confident that they will respond positively to a project-based learning (PBL) environment. My students are curious about the world around them and are constantly trying to understand how things work. Based on my experience observing children, I agree with John Dewey that children are natural learners who possess the "instinct of investigation." Providing that I do my best (in my role as teacher) to facilitate, assist in, and create a place for investigation, PBL will work with my students. I have come to the realization that if I create an investigation-supportive environment, I will also be creating an autonomy-supportive environment. This environment will be characterized by respect for all members of the class and respect for student choice. Given the high levels of intrinsic motivation that already exists among my students, I think PBL is a natural fit that has the potential for increasing learning autonomy. Because my students are fascinated by digital tools and generally technology-savvy, pursuing PBL that incorporates technology seems like a good instructional avenue to take. Providing that I plan and "scaffold" appropriate learning opportunities, my students should gain and exercise increasing levels of control over their own learning. Because we don’t stay with our students forever, the key is providing them with the skills they need as they move forward as lifelong learners. The skills of critical inquiry, problem-solving, and decision-making that are formed when engaging in PBL activities are precisely the competencies that are needed in the world outside of school. We don’t want our students to stop learning when the transition out of formal schooling. Accordingly, we need to prepare them with the habits of mind and skills conducive to self-directed learning.
Reading and thinking about PBL has prompted me to reflect on my experience teaching young learners of English in Asia about 5 years ago. During that time, I worked at a school that operated on an "Educating the Whole Child" philosophy. Education of the "whole child" involved encouraging exploration. As a teacher, my role was to ensure a stimulating and supportive English-immersion environment where students could explore the English language while being healthy, safe, engaged, and intellectually challenged. The idea was that students would develop a better command of English in a “progressive” environment of authentic immersion and exploration than in a “traditional” environment of drill and practice. From my perspective, this progressive approach was very successful. Instructional time that took the form of play and inquiry resulted in situations that were rich with opportunities for language learning.
As I pursue PBL initiatives with my new students, I need to remind myself of the important lessons my I have learned about freedom of choice, exploration, and play in language learning. Although it would be easy to default to only using a teacher-directed instructional approach to “covering” curriculum content, this would not be the best approach for student learning. I realize that I need to find ways to have my students “explore” and “investigate” the curriculum while building English language competencies. Given my access computer technology in my current teaching role, WebQuests represent an interesting avenue for exploring key concepts and building language skills. As mentioned above, because my students are interested in and capable of using computer technology, WebQuests seem to be a particularly appropriate technique. WebQuests represent a great way to plan project-based activities that meet the needs of a particular group and target specific learning objectives. For example, the WebQuest that I created this week focuses on building vocabulary skills that will support reading compression for a novel that all students (in my school) read in Grade 4. The intent is to help ESL students learn some key vocabulary through a Web-based and problem-based creative activity. At the current time I just have one introductory WebQuest, but eventually I could have a WebQuest for each chapter! The Public URL for this WebQuest is http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=66567. I'm realizing that WebQuests can be very powerful if they include Web resources and tasks that scaffold learning such that students gain and exercise increasing levels of autonomy over their own learning. In addition to building my own WebQuest, I have also started compiling future WebQuest ideas on my Delicious page!
This week’s readings and discussions also served as a reminder that incorporating PBL into instruction is not enough to create an technology-rich environment that is educative. In order to be successful, PBL needs to be accompanied by clear expectations and feedback. Because they can serve both of these functions, rubrics are a tool that might be particularly useful in this regard. Well constructed rubrics can capture and convey complex and subjective learning criteria. A good rubric will serve as a tool for informing students of learning expectations and also as a tool for assessing learning outcomes. Given that authentic learning activities will emerge within PBL environments, it stands to reason that assessment tools that are subjective in nature will be necessary. It is important to add that in a true progressive, student-directed, and PBL environment, students would likely have the opportunity to contribute to the identification of performance criteria for projects. Accordingly, students might play a role in the construction of rubrics. In fact, constructing an assessment rubric with students might form one of the first phases of a technology-based PBL activity. It is important that the learning expectations and assessment guidelines are established before the exploration begins!
As a general rule, the K-6 students that I work with are very inquisitive. Thus, I'm confident that they will respond positively to a project-based learning (PBL) environment. My students are curious about the world around them and are constantly trying to understand how things work. Based on my experience observing children, I agree with John Dewey that children are natural learners who possess the "instinct of investigation." Providing that I do my best (in my role as teacher) to facilitate, assist in, and create a place for investigation, PBL will work with my students. I have come to the realization that if I create an investigation-supportive environment, I will also be creating an autonomy-supportive environment. This environment will be characterized by respect for all members of the class and respect for student choice. Given the high levels of intrinsic motivation that already exists among my students, I think PBL is a natural fit that has the potential for increasing learning autonomy. Because my students are fascinated by digital tools and generally technology-savvy, pursuing PBL that incorporates technology seems like a good instructional avenue to take. Providing that I plan and "scaffold" appropriate learning opportunities, my students should gain and exercise increasing levels of control over their own learning. Because we don’t stay with our students forever, the key is providing them with the skills they need as they move forward as lifelong learners. The skills of critical inquiry, problem-solving, and decision-making that are formed when engaging in PBL activities are precisely the competencies that are needed in the world outside of school. We don’t want our students to stop learning when the transition out of formal schooling. Accordingly, we need to prepare them with the habits of mind and skills conducive to self-directed learning.
Reading and thinking about PBL has prompted me to reflect on my experience teaching young learners of English in Asia about 5 years ago. During that time, I worked at a school that operated on an "Educating the Whole Child" philosophy. Education of the "whole child" involved encouraging exploration. As a teacher, my role was to ensure a stimulating and supportive English-immersion environment where students could explore the English language while being healthy, safe, engaged, and intellectually challenged. The idea was that students would develop a better command of English in a “progressive” environment of authentic immersion and exploration than in a “traditional” environment of drill and practice. From my perspective, this progressive approach was very successful. Instructional time that took the form of play and inquiry resulted in situations that were rich with opportunities for language learning.
As I pursue PBL initiatives with my new students, I need to remind myself of the important lessons my I have learned about freedom of choice, exploration, and play in language learning. Although it would be easy to default to only using a teacher-directed instructional approach to “covering” curriculum content, this would not be the best approach for student learning. I realize that I need to find ways to have my students “explore” and “investigate” the curriculum while building English language competencies. Given my access computer technology in my current teaching role, WebQuests represent an interesting avenue for exploring key concepts and building language skills. As mentioned above, because my students are interested in and capable of using computer technology, WebQuests seem to be a particularly appropriate technique. WebQuests represent a great way to plan project-based activities that meet the needs of a particular group and target specific learning objectives. For example, the WebQuest that I created this week focuses on building vocabulary skills that will support reading compression for a novel that all students (in my school) read in Grade 4. The intent is to help ESL students learn some key vocabulary through a Web-based and problem-based creative activity. At the current time I just have one introductory WebQuest, but eventually I could have a WebQuest for each chapter! The Public URL for this WebQuest is http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=66567. I'm realizing that WebQuests can be very powerful if they include Web resources and tasks that scaffold learning such that students gain and exercise increasing levels of autonomy over their own learning. In addition to building my own WebQuest, I have also started compiling future WebQuest ideas on my Delicious page!
This week’s readings and discussions also served as a reminder that incorporating PBL into instruction is not enough to create an technology-rich environment that is educative. In order to be successful, PBL needs to be accompanied by clear expectations and feedback. Because they can serve both of these functions, rubrics are a tool that might be particularly useful in this regard. Well constructed rubrics can capture and convey complex and subjective learning criteria. A good rubric will serve as a tool for informing students of learning expectations and also as a tool for assessing learning outcomes. Given that authentic learning activities will emerge within PBL environments, it stands to reason that assessment tools that are subjective in nature will be necessary. It is important to add that in a true progressive, student-directed, and PBL environment, students would likely have the opportunity to contribute to the identification of performance criteria for projects. Accordingly, students might play a role in the construction of rubrics. In fact, constructing an assessment rubric with students might form one of the first phases of a technology-based PBL activity. It is important that the learning expectations and assessment guidelines are established before the exploration begins!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Week 4 – Some thoughts on skill-building, technology-enhanced lesson plans, and classroom issues that technology might help with.
Like the first three weeks of the course, the forth week four was filled with informative readings, interesting posts, and thoughtful online discussion. After starting the week by reading Krajka’s (2000) article titled “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction,” I was truly excited about exploring the different ways to use CALL in writing. Over the course of the week I became convinced that “with the help of selected websites or other on-line techniques, writing instruction can be made more interesting, appealing, motivating and authentic” (Krajka, para 2, 2000). The impressive reading/vocabulary and multi-skill websites suggested by Deborah served to reinforce the notion that the Web has the potential to help with all areas of language learning and teaching. However, the readings and discussions about technology-enhanced lesson planning prompted me to engage in further and deeper reflection on the true utility and value of the language activities found on the Web. I could not help but to think that many of these activities can only be as good as the lesson plans they might be included in. It is a well-constructed lesson plan that can give focus, direction and purpose to an online language activity. When teachers create lesson plans they select and organize online activities based on the specific objectives they wish to achieve.
Like learning objectives, teacher-related and student-oriented classroom issues, can sometimes be addressed with technology-inspired solutions. This week’s project task prompted me to start thinking about some issues in my class that technology might help with. I thought it was particularly appropriate that we were told not to think about solutions this week, but rather just about issues. It seems logical that we should start with identifying problems or issues prior to looking for technology-inspired interventions. It simply does not make sense to try to integrate a specific technology without first having a learning objective, issue, or problem that needs to be address. This is to say that technology integration should be purposeful! Now that I have several issues identified, I look forward to exploring possible ways technology might help. I’m already thinking about virtual (Web-based) field trips as a potentially viable solution to the issue of not being able to do off-site activities.
Reference:
Krajka, J. (2000). Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 11, November 2000 . Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html
Like learning objectives, teacher-related and student-oriented classroom issues, can sometimes be addressed with technology-inspired solutions. This week’s project task prompted me to start thinking about some issues in my class that technology might help with. I thought it was particularly appropriate that we were told not to think about solutions this week, but rather just about issues. It seems logical that we should start with identifying problems or issues prior to looking for technology-inspired interventions. It simply does not make sense to try to integrate a specific technology without first having a learning objective, issue, or problem that needs to be address. This is to say that technology integration should be purposeful! Now that I have several issues identified, I look forward to exploring possible ways technology might help. I’m already thinking about virtual (Web-based) field trips as a potentially viable solution to the issue of not being able to do off-site activities.
Reference:
Krajka, J. (2000). Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 11, November 2000 . Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html
Friday, July 9, 2010
Week 3 - Using Social Bookmarking, Thinking about Aural/Oral Skill-Building, and Exploring Helpful Websites
The readings, postings, and suggested websites in our "Web Skills" course provided a great deal of food for thought this week. Like many others in the course, I have embraced the practice of social bookmarking after being introduced to Delicious.com. Delicious.com. The practice of saving bookmarks to a public web site and 'tagging' them with keywords has many benefits. First and foremost, social bookmarking allows me to access my bookmarks in an easy and efficient way regardless of where I am located or what computer I happen to be using! Being able to share my bookmarks with friends and colleagues represents another benefit. I can now share my social bookmarking URL and allow my friends to follow my updates on a voluntarily basis. I'm really enjoying visiting the Delicious.com sites that my fellow class members have created. I feel like I have a team of people helping me locate fantastic teaching and learning resources! When my teaching duties resume in the Fall I will be eager to make use of these great sites.
In addition to the course readings that were provided this week, many of my colleagues have been reviewing and recommending websites for aural/oral skill-building. I'm finding the published information on this topic area to be very interesting and I'm starting to get very excited about the opportunities that exist for using computer technology to expand and reinforce aural/oral skills. In particular, I have been thinking about how I might be able to incorporate web-based audio recording tools as a means of enhancing speaking competencies. I ended up spending a considerable amount of time this week exploring Larry Ferlazzo's list of The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English. Although I found Larry's reviews and recommendations to be very helpful, I realized that not all of the sites he lists are suited to my students. It is essential that I evaluate resources with an eye to what would work for my own class and students. Reading about how my colleagues think they might apply specific website tools to their specific teaching contexts has served as a reminder that what works for some classes might not necessarily work for others. Technology integration always needs to be appropriate for student age, appropriate for language level, and aligned with learning outcomes.
On a more general note, I feel that the "Web Skills" course is itself modelling good technology integration. From my perspective, the productive dialogue that has been taking place within Nicenet.org, on our blogs, and in personal communication is a clear indication that a community of online learners as emerged. I'm enjoying being part of this community where rich ideas, thoughtful reflections, and high-quality resources are shared regularly.
Regards,
Stephen
In addition to the course readings that were provided this week, many of my colleagues have been reviewing and recommending websites for aural/oral skill-building. I'm finding the published information on this topic area to be very interesting and I'm starting to get very excited about the opportunities that exist for using computer technology to expand and reinforce aural/oral skills. In particular, I have been thinking about how I might be able to incorporate web-based audio recording tools as a means of enhancing speaking competencies. I ended up spending a considerable amount of time this week exploring Larry Ferlazzo's list of The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English. Although I found Larry's reviews and recommendations to be very helpful, I realized that not all of the sites he lists are suited to my students. It is essential that I evaluate resources with an eye to what would work for my own class and students. Reading about how my colleagues think they might apply specific website tools to their specific teaching contexts has served as a reminder that what works for some classes might not necessarily work for others. Technology integration always needs to be appropriate for student age, appropriate for language level, and aligned with learning outcomes.
On a more general note, I feel that the "Web Skills" course is itself modelling good technology integration. From my perspective, the productive dialogue that has been taking place within Nicenet.org, on our blogs, and in personal communication is a clear indication that a community of online learners as emerged. I'm enjoying being part of this community where rich ideas, thoughtful reflections, and high-quality resources are shared regularly.
Regards,
Stephen
Friday, July 2, 2010
Week 2 - Thinking about Web Searching, Class Needs, and Learning Objectives
This was an eventful week in the “Web Skills” course. Our discussions have focused around three main areas: (1) conducting effective web searching, (2) describing the needs of a particular class that we teach, and (3) developing learning objectives using the ABCD model. In this blog I reflect on what I have learned in these areas and attempt to elucidate some of my insights:
(1) Conducting Effective Web Searching
The American poet E.E. Cummings (1894-1962) once said “Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.” Re-worded, this quote reads, “The most beautiful questions always get the most beautiful answers.” Even more simply put, “good questions get good answers.” It has been my experience that the deepest, best-constructed, and most thought-over questions always elicit the most rewarding answers. After this week’s discussion, I can’t help but to think that this notion also rings true for the queries we submit to search engines on the Web. I have become convinced that there is a correlation between the amount of thought we put into executing queries on appropriate search engines and the output we ultimately get from those queries. This is to say that good search queries on well-selected search engines get good search hits! Perhaps we can “digitize” Cummings notion by saying "always the beautiful search hit who asks a more beautiful web search query."
(2) Describing the Needs of a Class
I spent considerable time this week thinking about a class that would benefit from making a technology-inspired change. Through the process of describing my students, the current class setting, and the tools available, I started to recognize "windows of opportunity" where technology could be integrated into teaching and learning. Reading about the classes my course collogues have has also been thought provoking and professionally informative. My personal plan is still in its infancy, but I’m starting to generate some initial ideas for technology-inspired changes that I can make to the way I teach vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension skills. I have started to consult the academic literature on this topic and am starting to learn about what has been successful in other "action research" projects with similar classes. I’m realizing that it is very important to think critically about the nature of my class and their needs before I start designing a technology-inspired change. It is essential that my instructional interventions align with the needs of my students.
(3) Developing Learning Objectives using
Developing clear and concise learning objectives is at the heart of ensuring that my instructional approach matches my desired outcomes. Knowing my class is not enough; I need to make an explicit plan that will achieve explicit outcomes. When achieved, those outcomes are indicators that the needs of my students are being met. This week’s readings and task have introduced me to the ABCD model of objective planning. According to this model, objectives should include four distinct components: Audience, Behavior, Condition and Degree. The process of writing objectives in accordance this model has served as a reminder that explicit objectives are a vital part of instructional design because they provide the roadmap for meeting student needs. Through dialogue with my course collogues I have come to see “ABCD Learning Objectives” as sharing important similarities and differences with “SMART goals” that are currently used at my school. SMART goals are objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-based, and Time-bound. Although ABCD learning objects explicitly state the degree to which a behavior should be achieved, they do not necessary state a timeframe for completion. I have asked my colleagues to comment on this observation, and I eagerly await their responses.
In closing, it is important to note that the process of reading and writing blogs itself continues to be a helpful activity. Reflecting on the week has helped me review and synthesize key elements from this week’s varied discussions. I look forward to reading the thoughts of my fellow bloggers.
(1) Conducting Effective Web Searching
The American poet E.E. Cummings (1894-1962) once said “Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.” Re-worded, this quote reads, “The most beautiful questions always get the most beautiful answers.” Even more simply put, “good questions get good answers.” It has been my experience that the deepest, best-constructed, and most thought-over questions always elicit the most rewarding answers. After this week’s discussion, I can’t help but to think that this notion also rings true for the queries we submit to search engines on the Web. I have become convinced that there is a correlation between the amount of thought we put into executing queries on appropriate search engines and the output we ultimately get from those queries. This is to say that good search queries on well-selected search engines get good search hits! Perhaps we can “digitize” Cummings notion by saying "always the beautiful search hit who asks a more beautiful web search query."
(2) Describing the Needs of a Class
I spent considerable time this week thinking about a class that would benefit from making a technology-inspired change. Through the process of describing my students, the current class setting, and the tools available, I started to recognize "windows of opportunity" where technology could be integrated into teaching and learning. Reading about the classes my course collogues have has also been thought provoking and professionally informative. My personal plan is still in its infancy, but I’m starting to generate some initial ideas for technology-inspired changes that I can make to the way I teach vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension skills. I have started to consult the academic literature on this topic and am starting to learn about what has been successful in other "action research" projects with similar classes. I’m realizing that it is very important to think critically about the nature of my class and their needs before I start designing a technology-inspired change. It is essential that my instructional interventions align with the needs of my students.
(3) Developing Learning Objectives using
Developing clear and concise learning objectives is at the heart of ensuring that my instructional approach matches my desired outcomes. Knowing my class is not enough; I need to make an explicit plan that will achieve explicit outcomes. When achieved, those outcomes are indicators that the needs of my students are being met. This week’s readings and task have introduced me to the ABCD model of objective planning. According to this model, objectives should include four distinct components: Audience, Behavior, Condition and Degree. The process of writing objectives in accordance this model has served as a reminder that explicit objectives are a vital part of instructional design because they provide the roadmap for meeting student needs. Through dialogue with my course collogues I have come to see “ABCD Learning Objectives” as sharing important similarities and differences with “SMART goals” that are currently used at my school. SMART goals are objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-based, and Time-bound. Although ABCD learning objects explicitly state the degree to which a behavior should be achieved, they do not necessary state a timeframe for completion. I have asked my colleagues to comment on this observation, and I eagerly await their responses.
In closing, it is important to note that the process of reading and writing blogs itself continues to be a helpful activity. Reflecting on the week has helped me review and synthesize key elements from this week’s varied discussions. I look forward to reading the thoughts of my fellow bloggers.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Week 1 - Thinking about Blogging
After considering the ideas presented this week, I am starting to appreciate why blogging is becoming increasingly popular as a tool for language learning. Blogging can help to enhance several skills that are instrumental to the development of language competencies: Reading, Writing, Analysing, Reflecting, and Collaboration. Although there is a multitude of other ways for developing these skills, blogging represents a comprehensive approach that has the added benefit of resonating with distributed communities of technology-savvy 21st Century learners.
I find it very appropriate that our discussion about blogging happened immediately following our discussion about the importance of establishing clear guidelines for online learners. Although blogging is in many ways a self-directed activity, it seems to me that students communicating on a blog need clear direction (and frequent monitoring) from a teacher. Blogging assignments need to be accompanied by clear procedures and guidelines to ensure that they are aligned with learning objectives and are working toward fostering healthy learning communities. It is in this way that blogs, along with other e-learning tools (like email, asynchronous chat, and course management systems), can be leveraged by educators to promote and cultivate fundamental information literacy skills among students. Blogs open new doors for sharing and accessing information from around the globe. They provide new interaction and learning opportunities that extend out to wider learning communities. Anyone with access to the Internet can find, read and contribute to a blog. Because blogs are public by nature, it becomes essential that students develop fundamental information literacy skills (which includes forming key understandings around personal privacy). Establishing guidelines and rules with students provides a good starting place for developing "digital awareness" among students.
At this point, I’m thinking the best feature of blogs might be the archiving aspect. In a way, blogging is an enhanced version of traditional journaling – well known as an effective learning tool. Blogging, like journaling, allows students (and their teachers) to track learning over time. The advantage of blogging over traditional journaling stems from the distributed nature of blogs:
(1) Teacher and students do not have to be in the same place.
(2) Blogs are interactive in the sense that others can contribute.
(3) Blogs are portable and can be accessed anywhere there is an Internet connection.
(4) Blogs reach a wider audience (more expansive community of learners).
I will continue to reflect on the potential value of blogging as I use this technique in my own learning and professional development!
I find it very appropriate that our discussion about blogging happened immediately following our discussion about the importance of establishing clear guidelines for online learners. Although blogging is in many ways a self-directed activity, it seems to me that students communicating on a blog need clear direction (and frequent monitoring) from a teacher. Blogging assignments need to be accompanied by clear procedures and guidelines to ensure that they are aligned with learning objectives and are working toward fostering healthy learning communities. It is in this way that blogs, along with other e-learning tools (like email, asynchronous chat, and course management systems), can be leveraged by educators to promote and cultivate fundamental information literacy skills among students. Blogs open new doors for sharing and accessing information from around the globe. They provide new interaction and learning opportunities that extend out to wider learning communities. Anyone with access to the Internet can find, read and contribute to a blog. Because blogs are public by nature, it becomes essential that students develop fundamental information literacy skills (which includes forming key understandings around personal privacy). Establishing guidelines and rules with students provides a good starting place for developing "digital awareness" among students.
At this point, I’m thinking the best feature of blogs might be the archiving aspect. In a way, blogging is an enhanced version of traditional journaling – well known as an effective learning tool. Blogging, like journaling, allows students (and their teachers) to track learning over time. The advantage of blogging over traditional journaling stems from the distributed nature of blogs:
(1) Teacher and students do not have to be in the same place.
(2) Blogs are interactive in the sense that others can contribute.
(3) Blogs are portable and can be accessed anywhere there is an Internet connection.
(4) Blogs reach a wider audience (more expansive community of learners).
I will continue to reflect on the potential value of blogging as I use this technique in my own learning and professional development!
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