Blogging: Peering Into Other Countries...

I believe that after I become fully experienced with using blogging tools and learning all of their capabilities, I would have my students use blogs along side webcams. I was researching the topic and found that one could incorporate a webcam section of a blog of a classroom based out of a spanish-speaking country. This will be a great way for my students to actively communicate with native speakers and peer into their classroom. A great follow-up activity would be for them to establish web penpals. I can't wait to try it out in my future class.

Assistive Technology and Blogging

I thought this weeks work on assistive technology was interesting. I did a posting in the conference so I thought I would post it here as well so here it goes...

I have done some research in other classes concerning assistive technology. I really enjoy reading about the different types of technology that is available for children with the disabilities. My favorite piece of technology that is available voice recognition software. I've actually had experience with this software. Adobe has the feature in some versions of their software. I could create a document in Adobe and have it read back to me or I could have it read a document that was e-mailed to me. I'm not disabled, I found the feature by accident. I used to work for a legal division of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and they had the software for blind people that worked for the agency. It did help me because reading cases all day can get a little boring and this makes it easier. Without the feature it would be more difficult for the blind to do a lot of thing. They will always have braille, but it takes time for documents to get converted to braille and then have them returned. I hope that a lot of schools are making change to allow for this software, because will feel more involved in their activities with this feature.

I think that the voice recognition could also be used with blogging. It would allow blind students to be able to hear what is posted on the blog and respond. It's such a cool software option. I hope that teachers could also use if they decide to create a class blog.

Blogging in Kindergarten

I have thought a lot about how blogging could benefit my class. I am having a hard time since most of my students are not 100% comfortable with the computer and many of them do not write and read at a high level. So the only way I would be able to do a blog with Kindergarten students is if we did a class blog, were I would stand up in front of the class and use the laptop and LCD projector and expose the students to the concept of blogging.

I think I could keep things simple and we could try to write to other schools about things we are doing in the classroom and maybe they could write back. Just a thought. If anyone has any good ideas I would love to hear them.

Amanda

International Blog

One of the discussion guidelines discusses international participation with students. I was thinking that this would go with what I am currently working on with my students. I placed my class into pairs. I tried to match students who don't normally hang out together and also students who haven't worked together already this year. Then I let them look at a map with their partner. They needed to pick any country that they wanted to learn more information about as long as it wasn't the United States. The students did a great job of choosing countries and we have a wide range from Germany to Mexico and lots in between.

Anyway, to further this study I could set up a blog for them to gather information from students in those countries. I am not sure how to locate safe sites where only other students would participate. Any ideas? I would be a bit hesitant to do this, but it would give the students lots of new information about the country. They could send pictures of what their school looks like in the USA and pictures could come back to us. I have always felt like if people were able to get to know other people from different cultures and countries they wouldn't be so likely to have poor thoughts about the whole country. This could help my student make positive impressions and be positively impressed upon.

Kim

Classroom Blog Application

At first, I had difficulty in seeing the potential for blogs for a high school mathematics class. Next year, our school district will require students who failed one or more semesters of math this year to take an additional math strategies class along side their regular math class as one of their electives. The goal is to help students pass their current math course.

Of course, math teachers will have to teach the math strategies classes. As a result, the students in an Algebra 1 math strategies class may receive their primary instruction from a number of Algebra 1 teachers. The question becomes, "How do you help students who have difficulty learning in a traditional setting become succesful without simply repeating the lessons from their regular class that they did not understand in the first place?"

As a result, I have approached the curriculum assistant principal about creating a Computer-Based Algebra program. While I have a concept, I certainly do not have all the details. However, I know blogs will play a part. Therefore, I am creating a blog to use in the presentation I will give the principal on Feb. 29th. This blog will display a sample lesson (or two) that students would do and post their comments. If all goes well, I will continue to develop the course as a pilot for implementation in the fall. Wish me luck!

I am still unsure of my thoughts of blogging. It is a lot of fun, but I still want to learn more about the whole blogging process. I think it is well known with teenagers and young adults but maybe not people of the working world. I plan to learn more about blogging and how to use it more effectively with my students.

I have learned a lot this week about blogging and wikis and podcasts. Looking at everyone favorite podcast was great. I found a lot of different podcasts that will be helpful in teaching my Kindergarten students. I found some on reading and writing skills. I am still thinking of fun ways to use computers with Kindergarteners.

I am sorry for the late post. I didn't realize that we had a blog post due by Sunday night. I was away for the weekend with limited internet access. I will be on time from now one.

working together for a math problem...blog style

This week I have been thinking about how blogging could be used as a collaborative tool in my elementary school. I teach two classes of math for third grade and I thought about pairing up the students. This way their partner would not be in their class, but it would be a way to communicate with another third grader. However, I would not need to check out the other student since I would already know him or her. I could give each partner a challenge problem and they would need to solve it. The problem could appear in their blog space and then each student would need to access it. The student would then need to write how they would solve the problem and show step by step directions. Each child would then need to communicate with each other on if they are correct or not. This way each child would be checking each other and they could just copy off each other. I would have access to it and they could even get a grade for their own individual work. (It would be very easy to tell if the other person copied work…third graders aren’t extremely practiced at the art of cheating..at least that has been my experience…thank goodness.)

Kim

BTW the picture came from http://www.wolfswamp.org/pix/math.gif

Still Blogging

So this has been an entertaining blogging experience. It's been nice to see everyone's opinions on how they would like to use blogging in their classroom and what they think of blogging in general. Actually the whole class has actually been fun. I'm learning a lot about podcasts, blogging, and wikis. I actually feel pretty in the loop with my friends now. Anyway, so my opinion on blogging is pretty neutral. I think it's a lot of fun for my personal use, but I'm not sure that I would use it in a classroom setting. I think the students would enjoy the idea, but I would want to have a little more control on what they're blogging about. I think parents might appreciate written journals instead of blogging because for some of them blogging is a whole new medium that they are not familiar with. They not want their children on the computer that much and they also would probably like to feel that they have more of a handle on what is going on with their child and computer related work.

The Pros of Podcasts...

Well, I must say that before this conference I would've never thought to use a podcast as apart of my class instruction. When I viewed http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9c7e2dee3ac21690e490 I really enjoyed it. It reminded me so much of some of the educational programs I grew up watching on our local PBS station, such as 321 Contact and Reading Rainbow. I know that using blogs will be very beneficial to me and my students simply because it will add a new spin on how they learn, especially in a foreign language. During my brief experience as a Spanish I teacher, I was always thinking of ways to relay information to my students that would "break the mold" and allow them to "think outside of the box". I would use blogs as a form of a "scrapbook". Students and teachers and display their travel pics and comments. Blogs can also be a way to track and display progress. I would have students display Now that I think about it, even if I would've known about podcasting at my previous school, I don't think they would've had adequate resources to help facilitate the experience to my students. I must say that in the last 4 weeks, I've learned more now about technological outlets for education than I did as an undergrad. All I can say is, keep the information coming.

Blogging Pros and Cons

According to the Encyclopedia of Educational Technology, as a collaboration tool, blogging has many pros and cons. For instance, although blogs are a more public form of communication than email, students may write more casually than they would for a tradional course and relate private information even though they know there is no confidentiality. In addition, while blogs may be easy to create and publish, comments and posts to the blog must be monitored frequently for the greatest benefit. Furthermore, blogs require the participants to use software, the internet, and keyboarding skills which may be inconvenient for some and intolerable for others. Lastly, because of the time delay, blogs are not the best choice for quick responses, but do allow people to easily communicate asynchronously.

The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology lists as a con for blogs that "Not all college courses have content that is appropriate for discussion and opinion essays." However, Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Web 2.0 Tools states that blogs allow people to "share knowledge whenever it is needed and wherever it is located through the web" and where everyone is both a receiver and an editor of content. As a result, every course could include blogs.

Blogging thus far...

First, I would like to say thanks to Deb for creating this because I can imagine that this was not an easy task. This is my first time blogging so I am still nervous about it even getting posted in the right location. I too, have a MySpace page and attempted to do a blog entry. I didn't know how to make my blog appealing like many of my friends, so I never tried to do it again. But I do see the real educational potential in blogging. Now that I have a better understanding about blogging, I would suggest my students to use them as diaries and bulletin boards. I would especially like for my students to use them as class journals, instead of the traditional method. Using a blog will also increase their computer skills and knowledge. Allowing students to use spanish in the different setting is a great for me to observe and critique their grammar skills.

Michelle's blogging experience so far.

First of all I've never used a blog before and after figuring out that I had to be invited to join the group I was able to figure out how to post. I like the ideal of using a blog to communicate with my students and their parents outside of class on common topics of interest such as field trips, parent volunteers, and general information. I work with Life Skills students and I don't really see using the blog to much with them since they really struggle with reading, writing, and typing. Most of my students are at a Kinder level and like Amanda said it would be tough to really use a blog format with them themselves. However, I think it would be great to use with my fellow co-workers to keep everyone informed. We could also use the blog to get ideas on lesson plans and work on lessons together. I think blogging will create lots of new ways to teach and be used in the classroom. I'm looking forward to learning more as this class moves forward.

Michelle

Amanda Hunter and Blogging

HI guys. This is a great blog. Thanks Debbie for setting this up. This is one of my first experiences with blogging. I do not have a my space account so I do not blog on it. Thinking about how I could use blogging in my classroom was a little tuff. I teach Kindergarten and that would be alot to except of them. I thought that we could have a class blog, where we write the blog together. We do a lot of shared writing activities so this could simply be another writing activity. Ladies I look forward to working with you in this class. Until next time.Amanda

Blogging ideas for my third graders

I have been thinking a lot about blogging this week. First, the concept is new to me even though it seems very similar to what we do in the conference areas in our "classroom" for UMUC. But then I started to think about my third grade students and how they could use blogging to help them in some way. I immediately thought about their novels that they read in their small reading groups. Each novel is based on the students' level or reading ability, so in my class I have 4 groups for 24 students. The groups are not equal in number, but range from above third grade to way below third grade with two groups in the middle. Currently my groups are reading Charlotte's Web, Frindle, Sarah Plain and Tall, and Biscuit. I thought about being able to set up a blog for each reading group and they would be given a question each week that they would need to respond to and maybe even need to answer one from another person in the group. The students in the group and I would be the only ones able to participate in the group. This way I won't have to worry about outside influences are the students. Using the blog I would be able to have an understanding if the students comprehend what is occurring in the novel and if they are able to contribute to the overall understanding of the group. One of the nice side effects would be the practice with typing on the computer and just practice with the computer. As the students get used to the activities I could require them to add a picture or something else. I am not sure how I would manage the time factor for this project since I have 2 computers and 24 kids, but maybe through a week all the students would be able to get on or maybe even using adult volunteers, which I have a plethora. These are just my thoughts about blogging in the classroom if you have any suggestions to improve please let me know. I am always open to new ideas.
:)
Kim

Interesting Experience so far...

Ok, so this blogspot thing has been an interesting experience so far. I blog on my myspace page and that's about it. I do at least know how to leave message for my friends who use blogger, but nothing else. I have never actually had to set up the account, and the one time that I have to something goes wrong. I did all of the right things, I logged in from the e-mail set up my account and that worked great. Then I went to log back in today and I got this message that my e-mail address does not exist. Since I am somewhat computer savvy my guess was that it was an error, so I just set up a whole new account. Well needless to say I should've thought about the fact that this blog would not be listed in the new account, but the new account did help for something. Blogger has this cool link that you can go to and put in an e-mail addres and find out where the invitational e-mail was sent. There I was in black and white my originial e-mail address. So I logged out of the new account that I created and used the password reset feature on the old password and here I am blogging away. I did take the time to set up my profile so there's a picture and quick list of my ever growing hobbies. That's about it. I hope everyone is having a better experience with this blog than I have had so far. HAVE A GREAT WEEK LADIES.

Hi group

Hello group. I wanted to try to post here just to make sure I could. I am excited to work with each of you. I know that we will need to create a paragraph about our experience setting up and using the blog or being able to use it in the classroom. I guess we will need to decide which we want to do. I wanted to try to post a picture and change the font and all that fun stuff! Have a good rest of the day.

Kim

Adding Comments and Creating Posts

In order to add a comment to this blog, at the bottom of the text area, click on # Comments. In the new window, in the top right box, type in your comment. In the next box, do the word verification. Since I restricted who can leave comments to just the team and the professor, your Username is your email address listed in our UMUC course. However to get a password, you will have to set up a Google account. Click on Sign up here under the password box. In the new window, type in all the required fields making sure to use your email address listed in our UMUC course. Whatever password you choose for this account is the password you will use for the blog. Click on Continue to return to the blog comment page. Last, click on Publish Your Comment. The next time, you publish you will only have to type your comment, enter your username and password, and publish.

In order to create a new post, click on New post, in the top right corner of the page (in the top menu bar). Type in your text in the center box. Then, click on Publish Post.

The text above is displayed as a Post. To see a Comment, you have to click on Comments at the bottom of a post.

Creating the Blog

Creating the blog required three steps. First, you had to create an account on Google. This step requires that you enter an existing email address, an eight or more character password, a display name, and you accept the terms for usage. In the second step, you create a blog title and a blog address. Last, you choose a blog template. Although the entire process was easy, deciding on a password, display name, blog title and blog address was difficult because I created this blog before I had a group. My motivation to create the blog early was that I wanted to experiment to determine the level of difficulty in using the tool before I had an actual assignment so that I could gauge the amount of time required to post a blog. Because using a blog resembles our conference posts to WebTycho, I anticipate the time requirements will be similar.