The use of Blogs

I have been using and reflecting on the use of blogs, wikis and weeblys over the last few days.

I will post a consolidated reflection later in the week. But here are some thoughts on the Blog scenario to start with.

Blog SAMR

Substitution	Blogs are used instead of traditional diaries or journals to document learning.
Augmentation	They could be used by students to evidence an assessment task by embedding links to word documents, spreadsheets, powerpoints etc.
Modification	When used to document evidence of an assessment task (or draft), the teacher and peers could provide feedback via the comments section, allowing the student to then write a reflective entry and blog the final assessment piece.   Using a link to a teachers email address, parents could make comments to email  the teacher who is then able to use this further formative assessment evidence and which could shed light on any difficulties the student is having.
Redefinition	Students could write a story where the comments from students in other schools (states, even countries) dictate the direction of the next chapter using polls.

Blog PMI

 

Plus	Minus	Interesting
May be engaging for students.   Encourages and reinforces literacy skills and practices, such as grammar and creative writing.   Could be used to evidence assessment tasks and provide opportunity for feedback.   Ability to use embedded objects or media suits a variety of learning styles.   Available for anybody in the world to view.   Fairly customisable and easy to use.	Need to have regular use of a computer for students to update blogs at school.   Students may not like the 'writing' component.   Elements are not easy to have 'anywhere' on the page. Need to rely on the templates available.   Readability could be limited by a student's level of grammar etc.    Available for anybody in the world to view.   Have to monitor what each student is posting. (time consuming)	Are parents clued in to blogs and their potential?   Do parents need to give permission for the children to keep a blog?   Templates are adjustable with knowledge of HTML coding.   Re-reading their own work before publishing could be used as editing practice and would reinforce literacy skills.   Is global 'viewability'  going to be a problem? Need to educate about amount of information given in a blog.  Could get tricky!   Any there any blogging sites that can only be seen by those with permission?

I want to look into the 'edublog' that I've heard about on my surfing travels.  As I think that one is only viewable by permission.  I received a link to a child's class journal, but was unable to see anything.  So I'm guessing that this platform ensures privacy.  Which of course is a major consideration for the classroom teacher and indeed parent.

Wikis in Plain English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY&feature=player_embedded



Wow...I knew it could do this...but somehow this video just makes it all the more understandable by using layman's speech.

Wiki Reflection

Activity Design:

The question of mobile phones provided an engaging hook, as most, if not all, students could relate to the question through their personal experience and knowledge.

The overall design of the mobile phone wiki was very confusing to me as I’m not overly familiar with wikis.  The concept makes sense, but I feel it would be better used for small groups of students.  Having so many perspectives can be a really useful way to instigate a bouncing of ideas and allows for some higher order thinking as students analyse and evaluate the opinions and ideas presented.  However, the sheer amount of input means that there is a great deal of reading involved and this could turn students off from the task.  I felt I had to skim as I was conscious of time constraints, thus feeling like I may have missed some important information and ideas.

I felt that the wiki looked confusing with so many pages of similar titles and whilst I wanted to add comments it was difficult to do so, as I wasn’t sure whether I had to log in, or sign in as a guest because the initial entering information for each hat could be done without signing in.  There was an assumption about our prior knowledge which I feel was not good pedagogy.  Some students become turned off if they are made to feel ‘silly’.  Of course as adult learners we need to equip ourselves with the knowledge necessary to take part, but as this was the first task, some of us may have been unaware of what we would need to know in order to participate.

Students had been asked to keep responses to 40 words but this was overlooked and as such, made the comments too long and in some cases comments combined elements from other hats.  Perhaps clearer instructions regarding this aspect could have been given.

The Theory

This type of activity builds on Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism theory where learning is founded upon interactions.  The activity clearly supports this notion as students form their own opinions and evaluate the opinions of others.  Although, if a student is the first to ‘add’ to the wiki, they are not really using others’ ideas to construct their own.  Maybe having a small group of students express an opinion and comment again after reading peers’ work would support a reflective socially constructed knowledge and learning. The collaborative and cooperative nature of the task also supports the connectivism approach by enabling students to find out whose knowledge may be able to help them with future tasks.

Value of Scaffolding and Learning Outcomes

The use of de Bono Thinking Hats was an extremely good way to illicit high order thinking as students are required to think deeply about the issue of mobile phones in the classroom.  It can be easier to think about each aspect (good, bad etc) separately in order to come to a concise opinion.

For my own learning, I found the yellow hat particularly hard to use.  I had such strong feelings (Red and Black) that it was hard to ‘switch’ hats in order to come up with a positive comment.  However, because I found it difficult, I was more likely to be using higher order thinking skills.  I had to think deeper, so in the respect of ensuring HOT skills the hats certainly provided this opportunity.

Wikis...Oh my Lord!!!

Happy Halloween.

Ok I've just been to the mobile phone wiki thing.  And OMG....It's going to be hard to reflect on as there is so much good...and so much bad!

The idea of collaboration is fantastic.  Sharing of perspectives, the bouncing of ideas leads to great high order thinking, but maybe it's my generation as I found the whole wiki hard to follow.  There were too many pages, old dates (were they previous enrollees of the course).  I made a comment to someone, only to notice that they date was 6 months ago...guess they won't be answering me anytime soon. :/

Didn't I read somewhere that we were meant to give each hat no more than 40 words?

I will get to the proper academic reflection later on today...as for now my brain is overloaded with so much information and perspectives that I can't find my own opinions.  Stay tuned...

Tuesday Morning Musings

9.20am 29th October 2013

I watched the edutopia last night (although I might have to watch it again to take it all in :))  One of the things that struck a chord with me was the 'advertise' your lessons.  This makes a lot of sense. I have noticed at prac that the kids get a kick out of looking forward to something.  Especially in low SES schools, the concept of 'looking forward' to something may be a rare occurrence perhaps.

I'm unsure at the moment as to how I would advertise lessons using ICT...maybe a powerpoint or youtube could be used as a commercial break at the beginning of the week? Maybe some students could be in charge of making the commercial to advertise upcoming events/lessons.  This would give them ownership and make them active participants in their learning as they use persuasive skills as well as ICT skills to create a advert for their peers.

By the way, I had a look at Voki last night.  I'm in two minds about it at the moment to be honest.  I can see why kids might like it, although my own kids were a bit like "Whatever! all it does is talk".  I read some of the lesson plan ideas on there and the one that stuck out was using it to write (say) a persuasive book review.  Some teachers mentioned using it to have students review their learning by way of a reflection tool. This could also be a method of formative assessment or anecdotal evidence.

Anyway...stay safe...happy blogging!

What's with the time stamp?

Just noticed that my last post was apparently written yesterday???  Now I know time flies, but seriously I only just posted it a few moments ago.  Today is Monday 28th October right? :) It is currently 10.55am.  Maybe I have to adjust some settings somewhere?  But then...does it really matter?  Ok, on to listen to the Edutopia video...via the kettle and coffee jar!!  :)

Blogger Newbie

Ok so this is blogging is it? I'm from the era when we wrote our inner most thoughts and feelings on the paper page, so this could take a little getting used to.  I am excited by new technology and was over the moon with my iPad a couple years ago, so the idea of examining all these different platforms doesn't faze me...really it's just the time that it will take.

Every time I decide to sit and do some net based research, I get dragged (ok not kicking and screaming) off on a tangent.  In fact tangent could be my middle name, so I must try to stay focused this term. 

I am looking forward to reading through everyone's blogs and hopefully they will keep me on the path on which I need to be....