First, open the following links and browse / read each which gives you a good general foundation on how to use blogs in education as well as negative aspects:
(1) The Ultimate Guide to The Use of Blogs in Teaching ~ Educational ...
www.educatorstechnology.com/.../ultimate-guide-to-use-of-blogs-in.htm...
(2) Fresh and Forward-thinking: Using Blogs for Educational Purposes
www.ucdenver.edu/academics/CUOnline/.../Handbook/.../Chapter_6.pdf
primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/information-about-educational-blogging/
Fourth Project Instructions: Create your own blog using www.blogger.com OR www.edublogs.org. Once completed, add a comment to this post with the link to your blog. This blog should stay with the same grade level as your poster, Word Project, and video---and in keeping with the Theme/Topics already established in projects 2 and 3. This mini project should have the following aspects:
(1) Set up your blog for a specific course or lesson, that has already been established in projects 2 and 3. Be creative and original with your layout. (1%)
(2) Include profile information on the course teachers (1%) With the groups being so large, it may be necessary to include this information on another blog page.
(3) Blog must contain a Home page, a Topic page, a Grammar page, and a Vocabulary page (1%)
(4) Each page should have a teaching oriented post which gives students instructions on what they should do to complete a lesson and / or topic content / or skill. (1%)
(5) Add appropriate pictures/images which coincide with your grade level and topic content. (1%)
(6) Add your GoAnimate Video and at least 1 other YouTube video ---both of which must be appropriate for your grade level and topic content. (1%)
Visit our blog. Go to http://classroomobjects-7thgraders.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThis is our Blog:
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Our blog !!! http://learningclassroomcommands.blogspot.com/
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http://learnsports4-9thers.blogspot.com/ there you go. Vinicio, Lucia & Dayana´s ...
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ReplyDeleteFrom all the tools used along the course this has been, in my personal oppinion the best one! A blog gives you a wide range of possibilites to do. You can edit it until you get a desired theme for your students, you can include multimedia elements, make it catching, work together with other colleagues and most importantly it is really easy for your students to participate and use it. Blogs are really common among teenage students nowadays, they use it to discuss music, games, tv shows, technology and others, which gives an advantage to us since many of them are aware of how to use a blog. If they are not, it is easy to explain how to do it. As a teacher I've experienced how difficult it is to work in the different skills as desired because of -mainly- time limitations, and the area which is more affected is listening. With a blog you can leave the links for audios, youtube videos and others, which will help the student improve his listening skills, and it can be checked by looking at the students' comments in the same blog.
ReplyDeleteI´m definitely using blogs in my classes when I have to assign homeworks and to leave practice for tests (written, reading and listening exercises). Visual aids can lead to a more succesful learning process in students. Pictures can be used to have students write about them, for instance describing people, or describing the actions represented in the pictures. This can be done to practice different verbal tenses. Vocabulary can be reinforced as practice for tests, again, making use of visual aids.
And one of the most amazing things is being able to include tabs with which you keep it organized and not messy at all. Students can find specific tabs with their names and thus specific audios or exercises for each one of them, aiming to avoid plagiarism.
The blog is a very versatile tool and when it comes a wide range of possibilities on how to use it. Blogs are really popular nowadays and are an easy tool to use. The students will only have to log in with their usernames or FB accounts and start working on what is asked. Blogs can be added a wide variety of tools and widgets to make this tool more interactive and useful. I would like to use blogs to work in my classes in the future, when it comes to giving instructions for homework or any assignment, using a blog will make them more trustful and handy since once you write them in the blog, they will stay there until you decide to remove them,making it easy for the students to refer to the instructions any time they need it.
ReplyDeleteAnother way of using a blog is for the written assignments, asking the students to upload their tasks as comments in the blog is an easy way to check them and also to see that the tasks were uploaded before the deadlines. The blogs not only help with written tasks though, we can also use them to reinforce listening and even speaking by adding other tools to the same blog page, things like online videos, voicethreads, podcasts, readings etc. Are easily added to blogs and can be checked out by the students at any moment.
Undoubtedly, the use of blogs really illustrates any course in a very different and innovative way. Imagine how different it is to get to a class for the first time and that the chronogram and evaluations to be developed are presented in a blog. Really, when a teacher uses this kind of tools, he/she is showing to have interest toward the course he/she is imparting and one of the most important points is that he/she seems to be so organized. Although according to my personal experience before this course I had just one opportunity of working with a blog, it was very interesting and I perceived the course in a different way. The fact of sharing experiences and opinions by commenting under others’ was really different in comparison of presenting a simple paper to the professor without knowing others’ opinions. Also, it is important to mention that when you know that others are going to take a look to your opinions or ideas, those ones are going to be better and surely, you will think them twice.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I’d really like to use a blog in the future with my students. All the aspects to take into account during the course, would be included in the blog in such a way any changes can be done at any time and students can look at them. Every single assignment would be posted on it with detailed aspects to take into account when developing each of them. Something I would like to include would also be a kind of weekly discussion topics, opinions on others’ presentations and so on. It is really catchy for me to participate in discussions or even debates in this way, that’s why maybe I’d like to have my students experiencing the same. Unconsciously they will be developing their criticism but at the same time being respectful with their classmates’ points of view.
To close up with my perception about blogs, I’d like to support my ideas with what was just satated by Bozarth (2010) in his book Social Media for trainers “Blogs provide an excellent space for reflection, post-and-response conversation, and knowledge sharing. For the instructor looking for course architecture, a blog is clean, simple space for arranging assignments, discussion questions, and links to course material.” As it is reflected, Jane Bozarth summarizes what I already mentioned.
This specific project tool is very useful since it provides people; specially students, with a new and useful way to share and work together. Actually, bringing these tools to our high schools might be very helpful since students can take advantage of technology used nowadays to complement their learning process. Although, it's important to mention that Costa Rican school got low budget to spend on, so it is difficult to provide all students with the right tools.
ReplyDeleteWill Richardson on his article "Wikis" says "the collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort" (pag. 69)
We really need technological tools in our classrooms so then we can give these sort of assignments to our students. Cooperation among students is chief while working on a wiki, nevertheless a good wiki requires all the members to work together on specific tasks. One of the most important aspect of student cooperation over the internet is that it enables students to communicate without being physically present. "The experiences of study groups, collaborative learning, group problem solving and discussing assignments can be dramatically enhanced by communicating over the internet"(Panitz). So, focusing on our students learning process by the use of technological tools will enhance communication among the whole class. I would highly recommend using a wiki at least once with students from high school, since they are familiar with technology and social networks. Attracting students to a wiki harmonically colored with creative backgrounds would motivate them to work on it. Enabling them to comment, interact and design the page can give them enough confidence to really be part of the project. I personally will use it to provide my students with some knowledge on the topic. This will not only improve their communication skills, but also improve collaboration among them.