A blog would be a beneficial
tool to be used within my teaching environment. This Web 2.0 tool can be used
to enhance my lessons, as it would allow me to post resources and content
relating to the subject that I teach and also add links to other websites. Thereby
allowing my students to have access to the learning resources and also interact
and share their views and opinions outside of the regular classroom. Richardson (2010) states that weblogs can be
used to gather and organize internet resources, (Richardson, 2010, p.51).
Therefore incorporating blogging within my teaching environment will allow my
students to become discovery learners, as I could have them use the blog to conduct
research so as to gain additional information relating to concepts taught
within the classroom.
I am a teacher of Information Technology and I am
currently teaching grades 10 and 11. Blogs are an essential web 2.0 tools to
use within my classroom, according to Richardson (2010), having a space to
publish course curriculum, syllabus and homework assignments makes weblogs a
powerful course management tool (Richardson, 2010, p.34).
Richardson also states, that weblogs expands the walls of the classroom and
allows for collaboration to be more diverse and accessible. The syllabus for Information
Technology, is lengthy, hence I believe using weblogs in my classroom would
benefit me and my students greatly as it provides an avenue for not only collaboration
for students but also for teacher to manage students’ course materials.
According to
the International Society for Technology in Education ISTE (2008) one Standard
for teachers that may be met by blogging, is that blogging allows the teacher
to be a leader, in that the teacher seeks out opportunities for student
empowerment and success, as the teacher is now seen as an advocate for
equitable access for educational technology to meet the needs of diverse
students. Another standard that is met by blogging is the teacher being a
facilitator of learning with technology by managing the use of technology and
student learning strategies in digital platforms.
The International
Society for Technology in Education ISTE (2016) Standards for students is that
the student will now become a global communicator that use collaborative technologies
to work with others in that they are able to use the web platforms to share
their views and interact with others on a given topic virtually. The students
should also become empowered learners that uses technology to seek feedback and
to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms ( 3rd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE). (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved from from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
(2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers
Andrene, I enjoyed your post and can really see how using blogs within your classroom can empower your students to become discovery learners. That is what I believe all teacher aspire their students to be. You have two great ideas with using blogs that I want to speak off of.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I really think it's great using blogs to have students share their views and voice their opinions outside the classroom. In such a technology driven world, students will need to know how to voice their opinions and share their views in an environment that is sometimes heated. I was wondering if you setup any strategies that model to students how to voice their opinions in a highly-opinionated world? I ask this question because, I too, would love to have my students voice their opinions outside of the regular classroom but fear that my eighth-grade students would struggle.
Secondly, you wrote that you want your students to be discovery learners as they use technology as a means to conduct research to gather additional information taught in the classroom. This too, is such a great idea and I seek to have my students draft notes using websites I use. One way to improve this is to guide students to specific websites that are trusted and give great information. I learned from mistake by giving my students free-range to take notes on whatever website they thought was good enough. Bad idea. Each year since, I begin school by showing them specific websites to use for notes. As the school year progresses, I challenge students to find additional websites but to seek approval before using them. This has definitely helped my students and it makes them eager to research different sites that I was unaware of and not use.
Best of luck with blogging in your classroom. I look forward to reading more blogs from you.
Hi Andrene!
ReplyDeleteMy goal once I finish this degree program is to hopefully teach an Instructional Technology class or to work in the district as an Instructional Technologist. I'm so happy to see counties begin to turn back to investing in technology to open up these types of positions.
As you stated, I'm a strong supporter of discovery learning. My philosophy of education is centered around the belief of learning being an experience and that is the way we learn best. Discovery learning provides students with more of a sense of student agency that makes the knowledge they gain that more authentic. As stated in the comment above, independent research skills in best practice should always be modeled first. Working with middle school age students, I've learned my lesson very quickly to not let them roam alone at first. However, with you having high schoolers, they may be a bit more selective. I've interested to know, what specifically will be the content for the students? Will you allow them to choose on their own or will the topics be assigned by you? This is something I'm testing with my small enrichment group and I've allowed them to choose their overall topic. Also, how do you plan to assess their learning?
Looking forward to your response