Blogs are being SAFELY used by classroom teachers around the world to help students develop and refine their abilities to write and communicate effectively. Learn about a variety of classroom blog examples, and how you can get started using blogs in your classroom with free, safe digital tools. (This is an audio-only version of this presentation. An enhanced version with accompanying slides is also available, see the podcast shownotes for links to this and additional resources.) Please provide feedback on this presentation to help make it even better before January 10, 2007!
Show notes for this podcast include:
- Links to resources referenced in this presentation are available on http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com/macworld07.
- An audio-only version of this presentation is also available.
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Wesley,
Whups.. please edit out the period at the end of the google reader link above.
The link should read http://www.google.com/reader/shared/13759023390411244308
Thanks,
Mike
[…] Every day the possibilities for teaching, learning, and connecting with others via Web 2.0 amaze me. I clicked on the Edublogs home link a minute ago, and noticed under the Recently Updated section Kevin’s Meandering Mind, the personal blog of my friend Kevin, who is somewhere out in Western Mass. I was just about to search for Kevin’s class blog so I could send the link to Wesley Fryer, who is looking for exemplars of K12 blogs to include in his January 10 presentation at MacWord. […]
I have read the Schlecty book and attended a local and national level workshop. WELL worth my time, but of course I felt they were preaching to me in the choir. I already had a firm beleif in the basics of the book Working on the Work–that we need to evaluate our teaching practices, and use student engagement as a measuring device. I have roughly $126,000 in grant money under my belt–I enjoy writing mini grants, and am not much into the larger national ones–but I can attribute much of my successful grant writing these last four years on implementing the terminology and design qualities Schlecty details in his book. Of course I am also implementing those practices as well, and when collaborating with teachers, help them see how we as a team are naturally considering design qualities to ensure a successful outcome of our lesson plannning. Best of all, it is really enlightening to get the students voices in a student engagement assessment. SCARY sometimes too, as kids can be BRUTALLY honest.
Wes:
I had an opportunity to listen to the cast this morning while on a brisk jog/walk and thought it was very well done. As you stated, the framing/intro was a bit long, but was important to put your talk into context.
You might add a couple of other sites that speak to the power of the RW web – sites like digg.com, where users control what apears on the front page and comment on stories. Additionally, something that many people relate to is the ability of a user to rate a purchase on Amazon, and provide a review of the product.
Again, good job.
Ron
Wesley,
I sent you 2 comments above, but the first (and more important), with my feedback and info on this years blog is no longer there. Just to let you know in case you still have it in moderation.
Hey Wes,
Thanks for sharing this presentation. The information and synthesis is amazing.
What kept going through my head as you spoke was the read only environment of a conference presentation.
I’m doing a one day seminar on blogging, wikis and podcasting mid-January and I’m going to use Bud Hunt’s Yarn exercise: http://budtheteacher.typepad.com/bud_the_teacher/2006/10/yarn_again.html
I guess I’m asking how the conference can become read/write instead of just read? I know it’s just an hour, but how can you get your participants more active? What do you think?
– Alex
Alex: I think one way to make conference presos more interactive is to adopt an “unconference model” for the entire event, and have presenters post their “sit and get” sessions as podcasts in advance. Then the focus of the presentation / face to face time can be Q&A and discussion on the issues raised by the presenter. This is pie in the sky I’m sure, because many people wouldn’t watch the presentations in advance, just like many students don’t do assigned readings prior to class. Still, I think it is a good idea. I love the yarn exercise, btw. I hadn’t heard of that. My favorite way to make presos interactive is to give participants some response/discussion time with someone near them, and then share some of the thoughts they discussed afterwards. It takes time, but I think it does contribute well to real “take aways” for participants.
Yes, people do bug when they are not spoke to at conferences. Alan November and Will Richardson did this at a keynote this past November (here’s the podcast: http://www.nycist.net/d/node/19) and I heard a number of complaints. But folks learned a lot in that active time as seen at the end of presentation sharing.
Time is important for learning. Active time.
Good luck with your presentation!
Audio comment 1 is attached!
Here is part 2 of my audo post.
Links
Room 613 Student Blogs 0607 – http://hetherington0607.learnerblogs.org
Last years group blog – http://hetherington.learnerblogs.org
Instruction for creating a group blog – http://mhetherington.net/blogs
Some other observations based on my experience:
Many benefits to student blogging – see list at http://mhetherington.net/blogs
Put controls in place to keep the blog education oriented but allow students to at times write about their personal favorites, animals, hobbies etc.
95% of the writing on the blog should be done by the students. It’s their learning community, not the teachers.
Strongly encourage commenting (sometimes mandatory.) The perception of an audience motivates the students to continue posting quality work.
Good luck at MacWorld