EduBlog Insights

Over the weekend I was cleaning out some papers that had gathered dust in my office at home. I came across an email that I had sent Will back in 2003. It bears repeating. To give you a little background this was the first elementary group I blogged with and we ended up collaborating with Will’s high school journalism students. Will had emailed me and asked how a session went after our groups connected.

OK, Will, this is going to be a long email but I’m on the tip of something and not quite sure just what it is, so here goes!

Today was puzzling. Something is taking place among my elementary students that is unusual. My kids are truly very excited about your kids helping them but something has been in the air that I haven’t been able to get a handle on. Now they are really into this but something has been amiss. I think I figured it out today. They absolutely realize that their writing is out there, exposed for anyone to view. They also feel like their writing is not good enough. Now, in some ways this is a good thing but I feel like I am treading on new territory. I have empowered them with their blogs and they loved it! Now they have to take a leap of faith and just sort of be exposed. I don’t know how to explain it otherwise. It is a scary time for them and they don’t think they can do it. Typically elementary kids just barrel on through and do not have such concerns. They turn a deaf ear to the teacher saying the same thing over and over, to some extent. This is a different story though. They want to be able to do it. They want to deliver. They have an audience they really care about.

They came in today with leads ready and got right down to posting. Then we just gathered in a little group for some discussion. I always encourage them to tell me how they are feeling, what they think, how this can be better, what do they need, etc. and they do. You have to understand that for the most part this is just not done in elementary schools. They are usually told just what to do, when, and how. even down to the time they all troop to the bathrooms! We had a deep discussion on their feelings and having the opportunity to have your journalism students help them. They are so afraid that they will not measure up. One of mine said, ” I am so nervous about the negative part.” They phrased it as having students put down their writing and this would be upsetting to them.”. They then went on to say that they really wanted the help and wanted this to continue. They are a bundle of mixed feelings.

Anyway, I give you all this background to let you know that I am witnessing a new phenomenon and I really am not quite sure what to make of it. What I do know is that I have a terrific group of kids, they will handle this, they want to do this, and they will help us all learn and see what will work and what doesn’t.

This week, have your kids check in and comment on the leads, give feedback. Encourage them to comment on anything else that the kids have written, if they like. If you want them to go ahead and plan mini lessons on good reporting- nut graphs, quotes, leads, etc. We can expose my kids to that but maybe not expect them to deliver all of it.

Next week they are coming to class with this assignment:

• News story with good title

· Good lead

· Details in an overview

· More details

· One quote

· Good ending

• Bump up vocabulary

· Good flow

They tend to put personal comments and thoughts in their stories which I want to continue. I know it defeats good journalism in news reporting but I want to leave the essence of elementary students writing and thinking within their reports.

I think that if I have the students continue writing a news report (elementary style), your kids can use those to comment on how to improve, what they like, note when they have a good lead, handled a quote correctly, etc.

Do you think it would work if your students pointed out things they are doing well, things they need to improve, but not expect a full fledged correct report while at the same time we’ll tell them what that would be? Making sense????

After meeting with the students today, I met with their classroom teachers for a weblog workshop. They were really impressed with what was happening with their students. One of them has a student who is being considered for the gifted program and this student has to submit a piece of work that they are most proud of ..guess what, it was his weblog. The committee probably won’t even know what he’s talking about- :_). Each teacher stated emphatically that they had noticed much improvement in these kids’ writing. Others made comments that reaffirmed what we have been saying about this process. One parent today told me that her son cannot wait until Thursdays, that it is the most important day of the week for him. NOTHING keeps him from getting to school on Thursdays.

Not to say that I wasn’t aggravated with Manila during the workshop today √ it never works seamlessly! Your post today brings up many things that we really need to think about √ what have we gotten into???? No, not what have we gotten into but how are we going to tame it to have it reach the possibilities we know exist in this arena.

Please, give me your thoughts.

Anne
Seeing this email again was uplifting to me. It reminds me what can come out of struggles - good things! I am really struggling with my high school weblog groups, Getting Heard and Teacher Cadets. Mostly it is the ‘Getting Heard’ group. I wish we did a better job of making school relevant for so many of our “at-risk” kids.. This email was just the boost I needed to remind me that the struggle is definitely worth it.

Will blogging help? Who knows? They look forward to the blogging days but is it the novelty? I don’t know yet but I do know that they are willing to write on blogs. They try very hard and the writing does not come easy. I’m convinced they need to be heard and I believe in the possibilities. I’m going to keep on struggling for those good things to happen!

I received the

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Last year about this time I wrote this:

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This is an excellent article and ties in with so much of the discussions we have been having lately.

topics we have been discussing lately. 

A couple of selections from the article:

(permission has been granted to post)

First, the abstract:

This

paper explores the issues and challenges associated with the transformative

nature of digital media and devices on teaching and learning. It proposes

that current students may think and process information differently

than their teachers and suggests that we adopt the term digital mind

as a way to explain this phenomenon. It explores the relationship of

societal changes to the learning styles of current students and suggests

possible ways to alter classroom activities to accommodate not just

the inclusion of devices, but the learning styles associated with digital

minds.  

Then these great suggestions

for effective instruction as relates to digital minds:

Brown

following suggestions:

1. Focus on

   Outcomes Rather Than Techniques 

   Provide students with opportunities to put information to work. Allow

   them to do something and not just to know something. Reality based learning,

   learning in context, situated cognition, and problem√based learning

   are strategies that should resonate with digital minds.

2. Provide

   Options for Learning 

   Universal Designs for Learning (O≠Neill, 2001) suggests that students

   will excel with options in learning. Multiple options to express learning,

   multiple representations of content, and multiple ways to engage learners

   will help digital minds in the classroom.

3. Respect

   Parallel Thinking and Multitasking 

   People who grew up with the WWW, mobile phones, MTV and video games

   are used to dealing with many streams of information coming in at one

   time. And while we, as teachers and digital immigrants, may see it as

   disruptive, they really can do more than one thing at a time in class.

4. Highlight

   Key Points 

   New learners are surfers and scanners. While we had limited sources

   for writing papers they essentially have every library in the world

   available to them. They make decisions quickly based on side heads and

   highlighting. We must provide them with cues they recognize and

   help them to slow down and process when needed.

5. Involve

   Learners in Setting Learning Goals 

   Provide them a role in establishing learning goals, building the learning

   community, setting up the rules for the class and in writing the rubrics

   that will be used to judge their performance.

6. Provide

   Active Learning Environments 

   Allow learners to use what ever tools they may need in an assignment.

   Allow them to play to their strengths, be it media production or artistic

   expression in assignments and activities in appropriate ways.

7. Allow Learning

   to be Social 

   We have long recognized the importance of working in groups. It

   builds social skills and provides students with the ability to work

   in the type of environment they will be working in as adults. Working

   in groups means that people will need to talk, discuss and interact,

   activities that are typically discouraged in most classrooms.

8. Provide

   Opportunities for Reflection 

   Lest we think we must only allow people to do things that are fast moving

   and lack depth of processing, we must provide digital minds not only

   with the time to reflect, but the requirement to reflect. A digital

   mind does not mean a better mind necessarily. We should provide opportunities

   for both experiential and reflective cognition.

Good points to keep in mind!  All of them have really got me thinking. I particularly

the authors for letting me share their good work!

Al Delgado from Educational Weblogs has a post we all need to read. It’s an action call and we need to heed the call. Al reports about ISTE called educators and the community to action regarding the cuts in funds for educational technology. Here is the link to EdTech Action Network.

Al provides this info:

So the call to action is to

Congress.

There are further details on

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Jenn Spiess of TechKNOW pointed out this article, “Reflection in an Always-on Environment: Has It Been Turned OFF?”, by Helen Chen. It comes out of Stanford University. The author states that the learning environment that students reside in is one that is characterized by multitasking, visual orientation, immediate gratification, and parallel processing. This environment may lend itself to students who are left with only their reactions instead of their reflections. The importance of building reflection and critical thinking into the learning process was emphasized. The author points out how it is not just a matter of providing time to reflect, but recognizing that reflection for the purpose of learning is a skill that needs to be taught, possibly through an apprenticeship model. This is where blogs can shine.

 I received this comment from Christian on a previous post . It’s short, asks good questions and results will be available. So you so take a few minutes and participate!

Here’s the link to the survey!

On a previous post Lynn made a comment asking for help for a staff development piece on wikis. I pointed her to PB Wiki.  Anyone have other suggestions for Lynn?

Kudos to Tim! The December/January issue of the Connected Newsletter from Classroom Connect features a wired success story featuring Tim Lauer of Meriwether Lewis Elementary School. He is interviewed about his school’s use of Instiki software.

 I always look forward to reading his blog, Education/Technology! And one of these days I AM going to learn how to use photographs the way he does.  I love the design of his blogs!

Here’s a dilemma I can write about and would love to get some feedback.