I am currently teaching part time at a small private school in St.Kitts called SKI academy http://skiacademy.shutterfly.com/ and am fortunate enough to be able to interact with all levels at the school on a weekly basis. The age group that I am drawn to initially use blogs with is the grade 7/8 level for a few reasons. From a ease of use standpoint, I know that this classroom has access to laptops for each of their students on a daily basis (most students have their own and there are school laptops for those that forget), also the students at this level are used to utilizing the computers on a more regular basis so there will be fewer technological gliches (I hope). Also I feel as though these students would embrace this type of learning quickly and I know they will show me a thing or two about blogging once they have been on for a few hours!
The project that I propose to do with them relates to their history class. I would like for them to create individual blogs and complete a jigsaw type of activity. Each of the students will be responsible for becoming an expert on a different area of the history curriculum and (I will be a part of this as well) then create a blog to demonstrate their knowledge. Then each of the other students will be responsible for visiting the blog and digesting the knowledge and any questions or comments they have will be directed towards the student who created the blog. At the end of this assignment all students are responsible for all of the material that has been shared by each of the students. Of course there will be outlines of what is pertinent information, rubrics for blogging as well as content etc.
This is a new version of the old idea of researching a topic and then creating a poster board demonstrating your knowledge or a power point presentation demonstrating your knowledge. With the use of the blog students will be able to include links to great pictures, videos or interactive sites that are relevant to their topic and because their post will be on the internet they will no doubt take great care to post well thought out and well researched information. As Kathy Martin said in the Spotlight on Technology (this weeks DVD) students will have to be taught how to write so that others can read their writing and so that they can respond to fellow classmates. This will be not only a project focused on St.Kitts history, but it will encompass blogging skills, writing skills, presentation skills, communication skills, and life skills.
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Reedblogger,
ReplyDeleteI like this approach to blogging. You treat your studetns as an expert and have them teach through blogging. Then students check it out and respond with feedback and questions. It could create great dialogue and those "what if" questions the students always pose to the teacher. Would you have some parameters on this activity? Such as having students come up with at least 2 questions for each blog area? I am just thinking that if it is too open ended, there might be randomness, and lack of follow through on the activity? But I like this approach. Are you on a block Schedule?
That is an inovative way to make an old assignment that has lots of value new and exciting again. I remember when they rolled out the powerpoint presentations. They were the stuff. If you could get your students to participate in the blogs I really think your idea would work. Do you have a lot of computer access in your school? Or do most of your children have computer access at home? That is a must when giving an assignment using technology.
ReplyDeleteExcellent idea! Will students be able to have their work saved onto a DVD, is that possible with a blog site? I am completely new to this so I was just wondering if they would have a saved, finished product? Another thing I thought of is having them back up their posts in Word documents to assure they do not lose their information.
ReplyDeleteGayle,
ReplyDeleteNo problem about the multiple comments! I love hearing from my fellow classmates. I really love your approach with incorporating blogging in your curriculum. I agree that the 7/8 grade levels would probably be the best to introduce this concept to. I believe that they have enough prior technological knowledge to be able to blog. What would be the specific topics that you would think this would work with the best in your curriculum? I agree with Jay in saying that having the students research a certain number of facts would be better than having the students "free-research". I really like your idea of the jigsaw, and probably will integrate this idea into my class.
Some great feedback and questions.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely have some parameters on the activity especially as a starting point for the blog so that the students can not only do their history curriculum, but also learn how to narrow their research and weed out what is relevant information and what isn't. There will also have to be parameters for follow through by fellow students as I can see that without that it might just get chaotic.
We do have a lot of computer access at the school with a class set of laptops that teachers have access to anytime. Also, at this grade level students are required to have their own laptop for access after school.
As for saving their work onto a DVD that is a fantastic idea. I have to get on here and figure out how to do that! Not only would it be great to save work in another format in case of technical gliches but I can forsee that creating the DVD would be another project in utilizing technology. Thanks for the suggestion.
The specific topics that I thought of using were to start assigning a study of "people" to each student. Here we have to study how people from the following countries influenced the Caribbean and specifically St.Kitts and Nevis: Spain, France, England, Africa, as well as the following groups of people Inca, Aztec, Maya, Caribs and Arawaks. I would ask each student to become an expert on this and then share via the blog.
Again thanks very much for the suggestions...what a great way to collaborate!