Students Learning about Possibilities
Today I was looking back over some blogging links that I had put in my Favorites folder to save for a “less busy” day. That day is here as the students have finished finals. Do you hear that faint roar of joy coming from Atlanta? They are off and won’t be back until Monday! It’s nice to close the ITC for a few days for a little down time where you can think without the hustle and bustle of a normal day in our center. Bernie Dodge who is a professor at San Diego State University and is well-known for his Web Quest development had an interesting page on his web site about blogging entitled Cool Tools for Cool Teaching - Blogging. What caught my eye was his first subheading Writing with Passion. Bernie says, “Getting learners of any age to write is often a challenge”. He them talks about a new vehicle for self-expression - blogs! He created an assignment for his students to explore this new genre. He wanted them to think about how it might be useful to his students as educators. He used one of my other favorite tools, Inspiration, to create a diagram to illustrate blogging basics, personal blogs, and blogging in education.
On the education side he spotlighted these Blogs by Educators:
Mathemagenic
Educator Asylum (now EduBlog News)
Writing Across the Arts
Ms. Turnbull
and these class blogs:
Spanish American War
Joe Luft
GA-NJ Connection
In addition, Bernie provided these links for his students to explore:
Educational Bloggers Network
Weblogg-ed
Schoolblog News
Edublog Web Ring
For the final assignment for his students, he provided a link where his students were to go to post their reactions to blogging. He used Quick Topic which looks like a neat tool for educators.
Here are a few of the student responses:
Jeff sees it as a world-wide learning tool. “Blogging sounds like a great way to get students interested in the writing process. It also sounds like a good way for students to learn about the lives of others living around the world.”
Lily is inspired. “To get students to write with passion has always been the goal for many teachers. Blogging make this possible.”
Frances is a little confused. “I like all about it. Great way to get students to talk about an infinite numbet of topics. I just don’t see my self doing this yet. How? When? I still need to learn much more about it. I am very confused as what exactly is blogging? I guess I really don’t know much, but am willing to learn.”
Go read the student comments. Some you will agree with, some you will disagree with but I think this is a great way to get students actively involved in learning about possibilities. What a great start!
It definitely gives me some ideas for a class I will have in August. The professor will be attending a retreat, and I have a large block of time to introduce some education majors to weblogs. I can’t wait.
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