EduBlog Insights

    Last week I asked my GSU students to post about what they were reading in one of the chapters of our textbook, Educational Technology in Action.  My post, Responding to Professional Writing on the class weblog gave a brief description of blogging about what you are reading. Then I posted a sample post of my own, WebQuests Could Be Powerful, along with a sample comment

on that post.  This seemed to help them and give them more

confidence. I’m finding that university students are a little more

hesitant to blog and seem to be looking more for what the “teacher”

wants than my elementary students. I’m working at getting them past

that. It should be a good learning experience.

After discussion, the GSU students posted on their  blogs

and  went to one of their  classmates’ blogs to post a

comment on their response to the reading.  I also encouraged them

to end up with a thought-provoking question that  would invite

comment from others.  Here’s a few samples:

Cara wondered about applying what she learned to other subjects……

While the students are searching and enjoying the sites off the

selected art museum websites , can you think of other subjects that

could be incorporated while learning how to become artistically

literate?

Christen puzzled over some possible problems………..

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I love learning and I love teaching. Technology is right up there, too. It adds so much to the teaching and learning, plus it just keeps getting better. Over the past years I have learned so many technologies that my head spins. I came upon blogs a
little over three years ago. None of the other technologies have affected me quite like blogs have. I’ve been mulling this over for some time. Why blogs? Why is it that everything I study or teach jumpstarts my thinking to blog applications? What is it about blogs that consumes me, especially in elementary settings where the resistance from policy makers will be formidable? The possibility of inappropriate comments seeping through, loss of control of the learner and the teacher, and just the general fear and resistance to something new that they don’t understand are but a few of the roadblocks to blogging in classrooms. The other roadblock mentioned constantly by educators is time. I have agreed, shook my head and gone away feelingfrustration with our lock-step method of teaching of a number of prescribed skills that has become our basis for accountability in our schools.

Blogs give me a space to work with students and many, many opportunities to see students actually begin to enjoy writing. I can
honestly say that I have not been able to capture that kind of joy from students in the past. These spaces are free of testing, grading, drilling, measuring and comparing. I like having a space on the web for students to explore and play with language. I can join the students in fooling around with words and we are working together to create pieces of work that are creative and give students a feeling of ownership. It’s a journey we take together. They can begin to experience the power words can have for them and for others. The words don’t have to be perfect. The space can be messy. We get to suppose, wonder, be curious, examine and re-examine. We spend time reading other weblogs and get lots of ideas. The exploring and learning is wonderful and they are on the path to becoming good writers. I’m on the sidecelebrating, suggesting, sharing and marveling at what they have to say. We delight in reading our writing to each other. We help each other. We clap a lot. We laugh a lot. Laughter truly synthesizes learning.

Why just last Thursday my students listened to Aaron Campbell say goodbye to his students on The New Tanuki. My students were spellbound. They were mesmerized by his words. They experienced the power of his words. We talked about it afterward and it was special. Soon afterward they began wondering and composing some short pieces that they would say if they could create some Quick Time clips to share on their blogs. Wow! I know we”ll be moved by their words, too.

So, I think the reason I am so hooked on blogs is the teacher-student/student-student discussions that come out of blogging. We are connected to others. Our learning arena is giving students a space to use their voices and see results. Students see reasons to write. I’m becoming a better listener and I just keep learning. The stage is larger. The possibilities are limitless!

So I am going to start saying to those educators who say they don’t have the time that they need to seize the time! Seize the time to use blogs to write about what you are learning. Let your students do the same. Think about using blogs in meaningful ways to let students write about what they are learning and thinking. Writing let’s us know what our students know and it let’s us know them. What could be a better use of our time?

Are you familar with Bloom’s Taxonomy? I was teaching a class of Juniors and Seniors how to create a fun,
interactive activity on PowerPoint using question starter words for the six categories of Blooms. A professor had asked me to show them a good PowerPoint activity. They would be using photos and creating callouts to make little speech bubbles.I assumed they were familar with Blooms. My mistake! Not one of the students had a clue. Well, I had my work cut out for me. One student said she wondered what we were going to be doing and assumed it must have something to do with income tax. Yep, I had a ways to go. Not to be deterred I scrambled and did a quick lesson on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Oh, for more time with this group! They ended up having fun and I had fun showing them some of my elementary students work with Blooms. They were amazed!

I have found that you can improve thinking skills at any age using good questions for critical thinking. Students can even have fun with it while they are learning. Let’s not limit ourselves only to who,what, where, when and why. How about describe, summarize, review, interpret, apply, examine, categorize, predict, create, decide, conclude and recommend for starters? Students are up for the challenge but we have to do the teaching, the introducing, the developing of good activities to get them engaged.

Technology can shine here. In the elementary school where I taught we used Inspiration and developed a Jeopardy game filled with questions created from key question words from Blooms. Students love this activity and they are really developing good thinking skills.They create the questions and then switch computers and play the game someone else has created. They became little pros creating PowerPoint presentations where they asked each other and answered high level question. We used Microsoft Publisher and created mini posters with great backgrounds that set off quality questions developed by the students.

They love striving to make questions that push their thinking beyond rote recall. You can do this in any content area. You can do it with,many technology programs.

Weblogs are perfect places for sprouting good thinkers! My fifth graders acted out a skit to get to know the Bloom’s categories. Now I’m not worried about them memorizing definitions but I do want them to become better thinkers by “bumping” their thinking up a level or two. Students can and do rise to the occasion. Keep them engaged and thinking! Use weblogs to let them write about all their good thinking. Believe me, Bloom’s Taxonomy is user-friendly so go have some “Blooming” fun!

    I wrote about this on The Write Weblog but I want to share this good news with even more people. Yessenia is one of the fifth grade students who is a part of our blooming webloggers group. She  submitted one of her poems to the Anthology of Poetry

    I’m  teaching a class called “Teachers & Technology”, which is the name I’ve given to the class blog. You can find the student blog links there. The syllabus is 

already set up for the course and weblogs were no where to be found.  I got an OK to use weblogs instead of WebCT for

the discussion phase of the course. Yea!  The students are using Blogger.

Many of these students have not had education courses prior to the

course and quite a few are new to technology. It should be an

interesting journey. I have already connected them to my elementary

student bloggers.  I’ll keep you posted.
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Learn to blog or blog to learn! I

think they go hand and hand!  I am diligently working with my 5th

graders to see how this works out! I am trying to push them to a little

higher level with their blogging.

We had a good time during last week’s session, even if everything did

not go seamlessly. Isn’t that the case though with technology? I always

have a back-up plan and I teach the kids to refocus, if necessary. You

know they do a much better job there than we adults do. Check out my

post on, Learning to Blog, on The Write Weblog.  Then check out Ashley’s take on Learning Something New!  Plus, read about Paulina’s Exciting Day. Then Shelby tops it off with Lights….Camera…..Learn!

Kids giving advice on teaching - I love it! We’re going to keep on learning to blog and blogging to learn!

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Thanks to Sam DeVore

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