EDED20481 Reflection 3.1 Blogs
I find this blog writing exercise delicious fun! I don't find the reading of course materials quite as enjoyable, sorry. I enjoy the blogging bit, not the deciphering of information bit. My last blog was all about getting my head around terminology and was rather tedious in its presentation. Now that I have examined SAMR and Bloom's Taxonomy, I can attempt to employ my knowledge to the use of blogging as an ICT tool in the classroom.
Someone commented on one of my blog posts suggesting that my use of humour would be handy in the classroom. I guess that might be a starting point for my own pedagogy...? I reflected on my own teaching styles in my previous blog and realised that I have a rather fluid style of teaching. That might be because I have presented information to diverse audiences. Saying that, I guess secondary students fall into that category too. Therein may lie my strength. When I speak to people, I reason how they will respond. Sometimes that makes my conversational language become a little choppy. Sometimes I don't consider my words enough before blurting out my thoughts. I will need to carefully consider my communication methods with students. That's why I'm enjoying blog writing - I can write what I think, then go back and edit it. Unfortunately, you can't do that in a classroom. You need to be clear in what you are saying. I LOVE that I can embed photos, links, videos and other forms of multi-media into blogs. If I like doing this so much, then using this integrational approach should be easy to do in the classroom - SURELY!!?? If there were enough hours in the day, I would conduct every class using colourful language (appropriate of course) and engaging ICT tools. That may not be very practical. I will need to start small, I think. Using the Enhancement stage of SAMR. I will use ICT as an augmentation to the lesson and then progress up the levels as my own skills improve. As I move up the levels, taking my students with me, I would act more like a facilitator, directing students to resources and helping them improve their skills. Once I get a group of collected works under my belt, either from external sources or by creating my own, then I can use technology for learning and teaching more extensively, helping students develop higher order thinking skills.
· Visual learning tool • Post assignments, publish and share articles, provide links to other sites or research • Embed a variety of multimedia • Monitor student progress • Identify areas where students need assistance • Identify skills otherwise undiscovered • Interact on a global basis • Collaborate with other schools • Publish research and findings • Provide and receive feedback • Teach about cyber safety and privacy • Develop literacy skills • Participate in the use of other applications • Diary/journal thoughts • Communicate with parents • Create networks of like-minded people or groups • Develop creativity • Provide news to the community • Provide deeper levels of learning within a digital environment • Should be interactive to engage and retain attention • Should be appealing to entice readers • Can be informal or formal but should be interesting
After I wrote this list, I thought I'd better undertake further investigation into the use of blogging in the classroom. This article raised some great points and made me realise that I could use blogging as an evaluation tool, rather than merely a creative journaling tool.
Will I use blogging as part of my pedagogy? I'm unsure yet. It will be dependent on several factors: school policy, resourcing, enthusiasm of students, and time. I would want blogging to be an inclusive process. If there are resources available at the school, great! If there are members of the class from a low socio-economic background, participating in blogging from home might be problematic. At the very least, I would show the students how to create a blog, using responsible, safe and ethical practices. Blogging is a wonderful exercise in developing literary skills. The creative aspect of blogging makes it an engaging way to share and discover information, cultivating global connections. Without the collaboration aspect enabled by commenting on posts, I would not have seen my own ability to use humour as part of my pedagogy. I have learnt an enormous amount through blogging and have no doubt that my students could too, but have I taught you anything yet? Tiki wikiEDED20491 Reflection 3.2 Wikis for Learning
Setting up a wiki didn't really float my tiki boat. What a convoluted way of doing things! No, really! I think most of us have not had a pleasant experience with this. The evidence is in the number of accessible Wikispaces sites on our Moodle page. I have yet to find one that works properly or that students are using for their blogs. Even the page where we upload our blog addresses is problematic. Only one person can edit it at a time. Mistakes are easily made and another person's work may be overwritten. I guess that is what a page administrator is for - to fix mistakes and make sure everything is done correctly.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that Wikispaces Classroom must be a good platform for educators owing to the number of people using it. It just doesn't look very pretty. That might be part of the appeal - a simple interface. At the Substitution and Augmentation levels, wikis can be used for organisation and timetabling. The ability to publish posts by multiple authors is very useful and the collaboration process moves the use of wiki up the SAMR scale into the Modification level. When I looked at the Education Blog section, I discovered that you could access information from all over the world. There are some fantastic articles published with terrific links embedded. In some cases, the comments section contains almost as much information as the article or blog. One story that I found would be extremely useful for teaching history. The author explains how wikis encourage students to share their historical knowledge and use critical thinking skills to comment on other posts. By making history visible, the students are engaged and wikis can be used as transformational technology. I can see that wikis hold value at the Redefinition level when students are required to use high order thinking skills for participation. You may access my wiki page here, but it is rather uninteresting. WebweaverEDED20491 Reflection 3.3 Websites
As mentioned in Reflection 3.2, I didn't find Wikispaces very user friendly. Consequently, I chose to set up my blog on Weebly. It is so much more appealing, both visually and in its structure. I understand that wikis are good for collaborative work, but there are ways to work around this on blog sites (using post comments is one).
The diagram below is a tabulated response to ways in which my Weebly blog could be used in the classroom, following the SAMR model. I will be teaching history and HASS, so blogging will provide a wonderful extension for these subjects. At the lower order levels of Substitution and Augmentation, blogs could be used like a diary, informing students and parents of impending doom, such as assignment due dates! There are apps that can successfully perform this task, like Class Dojo, but blogs have an entirely different way of interacting on the higher levels.
I must admit, Silvia Rosenthal-Tolisano's 2014 post on blogging with SAMR helped me immensely with this task.
I could write so much more about Weebling, but I think that I might leave that for my next reflection and assessable task....
2 Comments
Hi Amanda,
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Amanda
22/3/2017 11:07:03
Thank you so much Kimberly! I am glad you find my blogs uplifting. I can't say that I feel very light myself at the moment with all the weight of assessments upon us!
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AuthorAmanda is a museum curator and pre-service teacher, learning how to integrate technology with education to design creative learning tools for secondary school students. Archives
May 2017
Topic 6: Growing your pedagogy
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