Conference Blog Presentation
Sunday, July 31st, 2005I always like seeing how others present about weblogs so I thought I’d
share my presentation given at the ‘High Schools That Work”
conference from a few weeks back. I left off screen shots of various
educational weblogs, Bloglines, Blogger, TypePad and Furl. I had no
Internet connections so I had to make do with screen shots. The
audience seemed to like the overview. Since the PowerPoint was quite
large I’ll just show the main focus, my jot notes for what I planned to say, and how I used pictures to get the
ideas across.
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This month’s issue of The American School Board Journal discusses the web and its effect on education. From online learning to school blogs, the Internet is revolutionizing education. Craig Colgan, the author of an article, “What’s in a Blog?” tells the story of how educators are discovering the newest form of intimate and immediate conversation.
One of the captions in the article is “An Unrealized Potential”.
That’s my focus today.
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What is a weblog? I could give you all the traditional definitions like….
SO all the above tells you the features a weblog has but……
instead I want to focus on the ways weblogs are unique and then how you might consider using them in your high schools..
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It’s all about possibilities.,,,,,,,,,
The best thing about weblogs is that they can be anything you want them to be. There is not really a right or a wrong way to use weblogs. You can use them…..
Mention my preference …… make writing the focus!
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I have to mention this first because I think you all have seen how weblogs in general are changing our landscape - politics, news, teens,
If we enter these conversations and make education the focus we can be change agents for helping make education relevant to our students.
Voice also includes the students. We have much to learn from them. In my three years of using weblogs with students I
have been amazed at what I have learned, especially from the student voices. They need to be in this mix and we need to value and respect those voices.
Not only can we get OUR voice heard by the public and each other, weblogs present a wonderful opportunity to get the voices of the public on our side. (as educators presenting legitimate concerns and issues)
We can learn from all the different voices.
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Choice of what you write, what you link to
Gives you some control
Same with students
Weblogs
make students feel like they have some control over their work, a choice. Every time I talked about blogs with students, it came through loud and clear that they liked having a choice about what they wrote. Now this didn’t mean that they could just write about anything they pleased, but they had a choice within some parameters. So try to build that in within the parameters of what you are trying to achieve.
Weblogs give students ownership.
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Having an audience is perhaps one of the most interesting features of weblogs. Weblogs have a comments feature where anyone can respond to what you or your students have written.
Absolutely the first thing they check.
We feel the anticipation and excitement just like they do when we receive comments.
Might need to orchestrate this in the beginning.
Tell about Sunday School, senior citizens, school board members, Philip fromParis.(jvolunteers who would comment)
Then tell about author.who wrote (through comments) to the students.
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Weblogs give me a chance to build learning communities where I am on the same footing as my students. We write together. We talk about how it is hard work. We share things that work. We learn to disagree in agreeable ways. I really like that and so do the students.
Learning communities develop within your field - ed tech, social studies teachers, math teachers and others. You need to give it time.
I’ve
learned more about teaching, about my students and what they are thinking and learning, about the use of technology for learning and , oh so many other subjects from blogging than anything else I’ve done. It really is the best inservice!
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Weblogs disrupt the notion that the best way to deliver curriculum is the same way we’ve been doing it forever and ever. I think that is a good thing and if we have enough voices banding together with a common purpose perhaps, just perhaps our voices will be heard. You need to join the community.
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Now, look at this picture. Can’t you see the potential there?
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Now we want to make sure that that potential is developed to the fullest from that age all the way up through elementary, middle, high, and most important, even further. We want to sent them out into the world as life-long learners.
I’m here today to tell you about a tool that has the potential to transform our curriculum and have not only our students but ourselves learning way beyond the ringing of the classroom bell. And I have to tell you that it is indeed empowering.
Exploring possibilities for the use of weblogs in education is stimulating and engaging. Weblogs are unique spaces on the web. They are places where you or your students can write and publish about a topic or several topics. Unlike traditional websites, they offer instant publishing that can be done anywhere, anytime, and from any browser. Not only is it a quick process but it can be accomplished with minimal or even no cost. Weblogs have built in features that enable further discussion and interaction from a much wider audience than our classrooms.
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We have a wave of knowledge that is available to us now through the Internet. This wave of information requires us to rethink what it means to be literate. We have always defined it based on the 3 R’s.”Reading, “riting” ,Rrithmetic”. Of course those are still of paramount importance but our continued future success is based on our ability to review our educational practices, affirm our accomplishment, modify the practices that are ineffective and seek educational innovations that emerge as best practices, especially in technology.
So to continue my story……
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I have a story to share with you about the potential of using weblogs in your classroom. When I finish, I hope you will see the possibilities that weblogs can offer to help you turn your classrooms into “High Schools that work!”
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My story begins with the neglected “R”. (why I got into weblogs)
American
education will never realize its potential as an engine of opportunity and economic growth until a writing revolution puts language and communication in their proper place in the classroom. Writing is how students connect the dots in their knowledge. Although many models of effective ways to teach writing exist, both the teaching and practice of writing are increasingly shortchanged throughout the school and college years. Writing, always time-consuming for student and teacher, is today hard-pressed in the American classroom. Of the three ‘Rs,” writing is clearly the most neglected.”
Writing needs to be put squarely in the center of the school agenda, and most importantly in your very own class agenda. Writing is not simply a way for your students to demonstrate what they know but it is a way to help them understand what they know. At its best, writing is learning. So my story continues with a story of taking facts, details and
information and showing students how to use it in blogging as an act of discovery, a powerful way to see real meaning for writing.
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Here’s a link to additional handouts I provided at the conference.
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