The Front Lawn
Saving the World through Educational TechnologyArchive for Uncategorized
The Pedagogy Behind Blogs
In my job as a Technology Coordinator I often get asked tough questions. One such question I was recently asked is “Why should I consider using blogs in my class? How are they different from simply writing an assignment up in word processor?” If you are reading this, you’ve likely blogged with your classes already, and you know qualitatively that learning in your class is better because of it. What if you had to answer the question above, however? What would you say?
In his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Will Richardson has this to say about why Blogging is so effective in classrooms.
“Weblogs are truly a constructivist tool for learning. Because the content that students and teachers create is on the World Wide Web, it is content that becomes a part of the wider body of knowledge that the Internet represents”.
This alone is an incredibly powerful reason to take up blogging with your students if you haven’t already. This argument relies on the potential audience factor that the web offers. It’s one thing to write a report for a teacher, but throw in millions of potential readers and the game changes.
Richardson states further that Blogs are useful for developing the literacy of global collaboration, and that they archive student learning in a neat, chronological, searchable format.
Another factor he mentions that I’ve also heard cited by several great teachers who use weblogs in their classes relates to the democratic nature of blogs in general. Students who may be too shy to speak up in class or who take longer to process their ideas have an opportunity to be heard and share their understanding with the teacher and their peers.
With four sound pedagogical reasons to pursue blogging in your classroom, the ball is in your court.
Social Networking in Schools – Ning it.
Research demonstrates that community-building in schools is an integral aspect of student success(Rule & Kyle, 2008). How’s that for a grabby headline? It is clear now that social networks can indeed build communities of any scope and any interest. From President Obama’s wild success in his campaign to heart wrenching stories in Egypt, social networks are grabbing headlines of their own as agents of community building and cultural change. It seems that schools of all kinds are looking for help in this very pursuit, but are understandably wary of the type of change that these tools will bring.
At the International School of Brussels, we have just implemented a Ning amid a growing division between teachers and students about the suitability of this type of tool in schools. I don’t know how well this Ning will succeed, if at all, but what is clear is that whether we like it or not students are using social networks such as Facebook more and more. Students in the International Award at ISB regularly organize themselves using Facebook while many students remind each other of assignments and even provide help with assignment using the tool. Why not try to harness this power in a school community that is officially sanctioned and therefore not quite so scary?
The Ning platform offers all the basic features of web 2.0 social networks such as blogging with comments, wall posts, photo and video uploads, threaded discussions, groups, private messaging, RSS, embeddable widgets for almost anything, and event notifications.
Of the many things that a Ning might do for your learning community, providing a place for small groups to form and dissolve is probably the greatest benefit. Teachers who need to keep in touch with IB extended essay candidates, club and activity leaders with groups that never seem to be the same when they meet, seasonal sports, field trips, and volunteer groups currently suffer from a lack of reliable communication. Bringing two or more classes in the same subject together for shared learning opportunities is another. An example of a Blist widget embedded in a class Ning.
Voicethreading
I recently took part in a professional development workshop in which the featured activity was a Voicethread discussion. A vibrant, enthusiastic Art teacher colleague ran the session which allowed me to roam around and help teachers with questions or problems. Throughout the session I kept wondering to myself why I hadn’t done anything with this application in any of my classes. It is slick, fun, beautiful to look at, and is about as easy as any web2 app could possibly be to use in your classroom. The potential for this type of technology is astounding and I have a hunch that educators will see more of this type of technology in various forms in years to come.
To learn more about what a voicethread is, I recommend watching the short tutorial on the voicethread website. It’s so simple that I don’t need to describe the process in any great detail; I would, however, like to share some great educational ideas inspired by this tool. Before making the jump, lets have a look at some simple concepts that might help you understand the lingo. Starting at the top, every user has a voice, which is essentially analagous to a website. Within that voice you create threads that contain images, videos, or presentations bound by a central theme. A thread can have one or many images. Each image in the thread can then contain comments created by you or your students.
I’ll start with my colleague Jenny Thomas’s presentation in which she demonstrated a book club activity done with a group of 4th graders at an international school in Japan. This activity was pretty straightforward; images of each of the books are scanned and uploaded to one thread. Students then enter the thread and comment on the books as they read them. In this case, all students were required to speak as text would be unmanageable.
In the voicethread titled 100 Ways to Use Voicethread in Education Antonella Munroe had a fantastic idea for a lesson on narratives. You could have students tell a segmented story where each student has to add to the segment created by the student before him or her. Allowing students to do this in their own time without the pressure of a peer group staring down at them is a great way to take advantage of this type of technology. In the same thread Jeremy suggested using it as pronunciation practice for quizzes or tests in ESOL.
A sample voice thread created by Michelle Pacansky-Brock
The Elephant in the room is definitely the digital storytelling project. Stories can be told about almost anything, but one intriguing idea is to use it for family history projects. “What I did over the summer” slide shows to break the ice at the start of the year, poems recited by students and set to images, and presentations about ecosystems where students describe various animals and plants and their interactions could all add a new dimension to classrooms. One history teacher recommended using it for graphical timeline projects.
This tool appears to be ideally suited to teachers involved in distance learning. Many teachers have voiced their relief at finding an easy application to create annotated lectures and solicit feedback from students. Though it certainly means extra work for the teachers, important lectures or concepts that students may need to hear more than once to master could become a valuable component to brick-and-mortar schools as well.
For those of you with tablets at your disposal, voicethread has just paid off in a big way. Annotating, or drawing on an image in sync with the voice, is quite tricky with a mouse, but doing it on a tablet is as easy as paper. As a bonus, you and your students have access to a variety of pen colors as well. Voice thread is yet another powerful example of how teachers can tap into the magnificent knowlege-sharing powers of web 2.0 applications.
In closing, I wonder if there is any research out there that explores the benefits / drawbacks of having students speak in this way, asynchronously. What types of literacies are drawn upon, developed, or strengthened that aren’t normally addressed in a live, synchronous group discussions?
