Many of you have dipped your toes into cyberspace by launching your blogs, whether they are class blogs, specialty group blogs or professional blogs. They all have something in common – a place to gather, connect and have conversation. The key factor being the conversation or communication. The flexibility of the tool is that it allows for text, audio, video, and images – all of those things that add value to our communication. This is not an “integration of technology” or even a “21st century tool”…you’ve all heard those terms before. Rather, blogs and wikis simply allow a gateway for the exchange of ideas. In doing so, we develop a community strengthened through mutual sharing.
We are very fortunate to have an ever growing population of educators who are embracing this as an opportunity to build upon their teaching/learning practice. Check out Ms. Beaton’s Blog where she is sharing her professional journey in formative assessment on Ruminations of Assessment. Her secondary students are seeing first hand that “important learning is risky and sometimes scarey”. What an incredible opportunity for discussion in class! For those of you who are interested in formative assessment, she is working with a team of teachers in developing and sharing assessments across the curriculum. Go to their wiki – Burnaby Assessment Network.
Wander over to Ms. Chan‘s site, which offers a wide range of information about her class community. Books are shared with specific questions to ponder and prompts for home conversations. Students and parents are invited to comment to enrich the thinking or to ask questions. I can’t wait to see what unfolds over the course of the year. These are just a couple of sites and there’ll be more highlighted as teachers find ways to push the envelop of thinking and engagement.
How are you using blogs or wikis? Or how would you like to use this?
If you are interested in “Jumpstarting your Blogs” we have another series being offered on November 23 and 30th. Please go to the Staff Development Calendar.
Dear Readers,
I am using our class blog as a place to try to improve the writing skills of our students. I want the blog to be for them and about them and not about me or how skilful I am at creating a blog. I pose questions for students to respond to and through these questions I am hoping that their writing skils will show improvement.
Students are now beginning to log in at home and when they are travelling to post their comments.
You can view our class blog at http://blogs.sd41.bc.ca/caldwellg/
Gordon Caldwell
Thanks Gordon for sharing your thoughts and inviting the world into your blog space. Improving student writing takes time and practice – lots of it. The blogging platform allows for immediate feedback (based on clear criteria) to support the writing process as well as a global audience.