Okay so poetry has never been like a big thing for me or anything… especially being from the sciences. But I must concede that “Science Verse” by Jon Scieszka, a simple, well illustrated, science based poetry book does have some appeal. I could see little kids laughing, and young/old adults grinning, at this book. Hummm… poetry and science eh – who would’ve guessed?
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Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Grand ideas re: Today's Teachers
I was writing a small piece for a class... thought I'd throw it out there and see what all of you thought:
As the demographics of today’s society becomes ever more complex, economically, culturally, socially, and in terms of gender, psychological diagnosis etc., the role of today’s teacher becomes linearly more complex. Increased complexity of curricular knowledge, class sizes, extra-curricular obligations, and increasing emphasis on security and technological issues seems a bit overbearing upon the workload a teacher is expected to handle. Though I have no doubt that today’s student teachers are getting the very best in educational techniques, I feel that a reversion to the time-tested model of a community education is far superior to the idea of the all-knowing, all-doing, all-everything super teacher.
The framing of today’s teachers as simply the manager of a classroom containing a community of learners is the cornerstone to the broader community, a community of educators. The interactions and slow integration of the classroom-based community of learners to the broader community of educators and citizens, is where much of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, societal knowledge, and technological integration will happen. The classroom will simply become one of the places where both communities may meet and exchange ideas.
In order for this dialog to happen in an effective manner students, parents, administrators, professional unions, policy makers, professionals, passionate amateurs, and citizens, need to have broad and in-depth communications regarding the expectations of future citizens and how to reach those expectations. Needless to say, teachers and classrooms will have a key role in the forging of society’s expectations for the future.
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As the demographics of today’s society becomes ever more complex, economically, culturally, socially, and in terms of gender, psychological diagnosis etc., the role of today’s teacher becomes linearly more complex. Increased complexity of curricular knowledge, class sizes, extra-curricular obligations, and increasing emphasis on security and technological issues seems a bit overbearing upon the workload a teacher is expected to handle. Though I have no doubt that today’s student teachers are getting the very best in educational techniques, I feel that a reversion to the time-tested model of a community education is far superior to the idea of the all-knowing, all-doing, all-everything super teacher.
The framing of today’s teachers as simply the manager of a classroom containing a community of learners is the cornerstone to the broader community, a community of educators. The interactions and slow integration of the classroom-based community of learners to the broader community of educators and citizens, is where much of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, societal knowledge, and technological integration will happen. The classroom will simply become one of the places where both communities may meet and exchange ideas.
In order for this dialog to happen in an effective manner students, parents, administrators, professional unions, policy makers, professionals, passionate amateurs, and citizens, need to have broad and in-depth communications regarding the expectations of future citizens and how to reach those expectations. Needless to say, teachers and classrooms will have a key role in the forging of society’s expectations for the future.
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Wow that’s like, deep...
So today we all turned in our auto-biographical poetry assignment. Wow, there’s some really good poets out there. Some of the stuff was so good, the content, the meanings, the poetic devices, the presentation, the ideas… so many good ideas, so well thought out.
One thing that stuck out was definitely the idea that a classroom needs to be friendly and encouraging in order for students to be able to freely share their ideas. The fear of judgement should not stifle a self-revealing or therapeutic experience.
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One thing that stuck out was definitely the idea that a classroom needs to be friendly and encouraging in order for students to be able to freely share their ideas. The fear of judgement should not stifle a self-revealing or therapeutic experience.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
A Paradigm Shift
I’ve always been brought up with the assumption that if you do something wrong, it is up to me as a teacher, as a parent, as a community member to point it out so you realize what you did wrong and thus correct your actions. However, in talking w/ my curriculum and instructions professor, I realize that system relies heavily upon an external moderator always telling you if something is done wrong. What happens if there is a situation w/ no external moderator? The importance of an internal moderator was definitely highlighted. So then I challenged the practice of not acting as a negative external moderator upon my students. After a brief discussion, I’m now chewing over the idea of dancing around the negative point and leading the student to the inevitable conclusion themselves, and thus allowing them to develop their own internal moderator. It sure doesn’t seem as easy as just pointing out the student’s mistake… but really what done well is done easily in life?
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Monday, September 24, 2007
Mmmmm Science... delicious
Reading a really cool paper regarding attentional blink... it really explains a lot of little things that I've noticed wrt to myself and my learning abilities. It may have some minor impacts upon how teachers teach and how students study... we'll see when I start writing up this thing up.
I'll probably post the essay on my blog after I'm done... but if anyone has the time or the curiosity you can look up Marvin M. Chun and Mary C. Potter, (1995). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 21, No. 1, 109-127
Furthermore, I wonder, as someone who is interested in research and teaching, if there are opportunities to do research regarding teaching methodologies as I progress through my teaching career?
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I'll probably post the essay on my blog after I'm done... but if anyone has the time or the curiosity you can look up Marvin M. Chun and Mary C. Potter, (1995). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 21, No. 1, 109-127
Furthermore, I wonder, as someone who is interested in research and teaching, if there are opportunities to do research regarding teaching methodologies as I progress through my teaching career?
Q
Ideas about specific integration of technology into the classroom.
So the other day I was prompted by my ICT prof. to think about ways that we, as teachers can integrate technology into the classroom… well I immediately thought of my post on September 17th, entitled ‘technological integration into the classroom’… I then thought: well I really shouldn’t be lazy and just resubmit the idea, I really should come up with something else that more specific and that integrates some aspects from the Alberta Education Curriculum. So here my proposed Alberta Fish Species Project (AFSP):
This project is to be studied is Biology 20, Unit B: ecosystems and population change. Even more specifically, it would deal with the general outcome of “explain[ing] that the biosphere is composed of ecosystems, each with distinctive biotic and abiotic characteristics” and “explain[ing] the mechanisms involved in the change of populations over time.” With respect to the specific outcomes I would aim the AFSP to “identify biotic and abiotic characteristics and explain their influence in an aquatic and a terrestrial ecosystem in the local region” and “conduct investigations into relationships between and among observable variables and use a broad range of tools and techniques to gather and record data and information” (“Biology 20-30”, 2007). A few ICT specific outcomes might be “select and use the appropriate technologies to communicate effectively with a targeted audience”, and “identify and analyze a variety of factors that affect the authenticity of information derived from mass media and electronic communication” (“ICT outcomes”, 2007).
So specifically with respect to the AFSP, it would involve getting my students to conduct some research into the diversity and interactions of fish species here in Alberta. This would be a two part process. The first part of the process would involve research and compiling of data from internet sources. This would fulfill the second ICT outcome by allowing the students to identify and analyze the validity of some sources of information. They would compile valid information, explaining why the information was valid, and then move onto the second part of the project. I would take them on a field trip to either survey Alberta anglers or to conduct some catch and release themselves to gain some empirical tabulation on Alberta fish stocks. This information would then be submitted to the Fisheries Management Information System, managed by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development at http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fishwildlife/guidelinesresearch/fmis.aspx
This would serve to integrate our studies of fish species and their interactions to a public data base that would serve to manage our future fish stocks; this would fulfill the first ICT outcome. I would then extend the AFSP by asking my student possible reasons why Alberta fish and wildlife manages fishing licenses the way they do.
The integration of technology into the AFSP is key in its execution. There is no way that a group of students could conduct a large enough empirical study so as to cover all of Alberta’s lakes and gain a statistically relevant number of catches for a stand-alone-study. The small amount of empirical evidence gathered in part 2 would be added to an already existing data base. Only the viewing of the larger data base would make any of our findings relevant. Secondly, there is not any feasible way of finding the specific species interactions without internet research. An empirical study would take far too much time, equipment, and specialties to conduct properly. However, websites such as The Royal Alberta Museum’s, Alberta’s Fish Diversity website at www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/vexhibit/fishes/index2.htm would provide detailed information at the click of a button. The integration of technology into the AFSP would provide both a broad and in-depth database, and would make the project relevant to the students in that they have a feeling that their data is being used in provincial decisions on fish stocks management.
Biology 20-30. (2007). Retrieved September 23, 2007, from http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bySubject/science/bio2030_07.pdf
ICT outcomes, Division 4. (2007). Retrieved September 23, 2007, from
http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/ict/outcomes/div4.asp
This project is to be studied is Biology 20, Unit B: ecosystems and population change. Even more specifically, it would deal with the general outcome of “explain[ing] that the biosphere is composed of ecosystems, each with distinctive biotic and abiotic characteristics” and “explain[ing] the mechanisms involved in the change of populations over time.” With respect to the specific outcomes I would aim the AFSP to “identify biotic and abiotic characteristics and explain their influence in an aquatic and a terrestrial ecosystem in the local region” and “conduct investigations into relationships between and among observable variables and use a broad range of tools and techniques to gather and record data and information” (“Biology 20-30”, 2007). A few ICT specific outcomes might be “select and use the appropriate technologies to communicate effectively with a targeted audience”, and “identify and analyze a variety of factors that affect the authenticity of information derived from mass media and electronic communication” (“ICT outcomes”, 2007).
So specifically with respect to the AFSP, it would involve getting my students to conduct some research into the diversity and interactions of fish species here in Alberta. This would be a two part process. The first part of the process would involve research and compiling of data from internet sources. This would fulfill the second ICT outcome by allowing the students to identify and analyze the validity of some sources of information. They would compile valid information, explaining why the information was valid, and then move onto the second part of the project. I would take them on a field trip to either survey Alberta anglers or to conduct some catch and release themselves to gain some empirical tabulation on Alberta fish stocks. This information would then be submitted to the Fisheries Management Information System, managed by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development at http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fishwildlife/guidelinesresearch/fmis.aspx
This would serve to integrate our studies of fish species and their interactions to a public data base that would serve to manage our future fish stocks; this would fulfill the first ICT outcome. I would then extend the AFSP by asking my student possible reasons why Alberta fish and wildlife manages fishing licenses the way they do.
The integration of technology into the AFSP is key in its execution. There is no way that a group of students could conduct a large enough empirical study so as to cover all of Alberta’s lakes and gain a statistically relevant number of catches for a stand-alone-study. The small amount of empirical evidence gathered in part 2 would be added to an already existing data base. Only the viewing of the larger data base would make any of our findings relevant. Secondly, there is not any feasible way of finding the specific species interactions without internet research. An empirical study would take far too much time, equipment, and specialties to conduct properly. However, websites such as The Royal Alberta Museum’s, Alberta’s Fish Diversity website at www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/vexhibit/fishes/index2.htm would provide detailed information at the click of a button. The integration of technology into the AFSP would provide both a broad and in-depth database, and would make the project relevant to the students in that they have a feeling that their data is being used in provincial decisions on fish stocks management.
Biology 20-30. (2007). Retrieved September 23, 2007, from http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bySubject/science/bio2030_07.pdf
ICT outcomes, Division 4. (2007). Retrieved September 23, 2007, from
http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/ict/outcomes/div4.asp
Friday, September 21, 2007
Responses to responses
Hi there all who may be reading this post.... Thanks for all the feedback from both of my presentations yesterday. All of your feedback is most appreciated. With respect to my Sem. class I will try and provide a bit more structure to my discussions, and I will try to be more inclusive wrt my lesson layout. With respect to my Psyc. presentation, I do realize that we should have focused more upon a single topic rather than giving such a broad overview of Terman... yeah it'll all take some work yet.
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Electronic presentations, skills and methods:
Recently I was asked "How I would teach effective electronic presentation skills to my students?" Well... I really think that some of the students out there today are far more creative than myself... but there are still a few general guidelines to any presentation. So in response to this question:
The first thing that I would do to teach my student the elements of an effective presentation is to create an effective presentation myself. In this presentation I would firstly, I would teach my students what the difference between good and bad topics are so that they pick topics appropriate to their audiences. Then delivering the topic in such a way that it makes the audience realize why the topic is relevant to them without being too wordy or repeating yourself in the presentation and the speech. Secondly, I would teach my students how to deliver an effective presentation. Skills such as time management, getting set up, finishing up early to take questions etc., practicing the presentation, staying relevant to your audience, respecting the audience’s intelligence and not getting too complicated that it loses the audience, are all of vital importance to the delivery of the presentation’s message. Thirdly, I would encourage my students to use more pictures and animations as long as these elements served to enhance the presentation.
During my presentation I would occasional slip in slides that are not quite as effective and question my student on the effectiveness of these slides, this would serve as formative assessment. After the presentation I would get my students to either set up a short effective presentation based on the presented points, or write a short rubric regarding the topics covered by the presentation. These would serve as a summative evaluations.
Q
The first thing that I would do to teach my student the elements of an effective presentation is to create an effective presentation myself. In this presentation I would firstly, I would teach my students what the difference between good and bad topics are so that they pick topics appropriate to their audiences. Then delivering the topic in such a way that it makes the audience realize why the topic is relevant to them without being too wordy or repeating yourself in the presentation and the speech. Secondly, I would teach my students how to deliver an effective presentation. Skills such as time management, getting set up, finishing up early to take questions etc., practicing the presentation, staying relevant to your audience, respecting the audience’s intelligence and not getting too complicated that it loses the audience, are all of vital importance to the delivery of the presentation’s message. Thirdly, I would encourage my students to use more pictures and animations as long as these elements served to enhance the presentation.
During my presentation I would occasional slip in slides that are not quite as effective and question my student on the effectiveness of these slides, this would serve as formative assessment. After the presentation I would get my students to either set up a short effective presentation based on the presented points, or write a short rubric regarding the topics covered by the presentation. These would serve as a summative evaluations.
Q
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Missy qian no speak English well
Wow, now I know that I speak really weirdly sometimes, but reading aloud off paper is REALLY difficult. I’m personally amazed at how many times I’ve stumbled over words in a short reading lesson today… kudos to Marianne for putting up w/ her partner. Man I’ve gotta work on that reading….
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Passionately burning out
So today we had an extremely animated lecture (or maybe it was story telling session, or something else… but I felt like we should have been around a campfire) about not burning out as a teacher and about being passionate in our teaching. I appreciate the blunt honesty of the realities of being a teacher… no need to coddle us, and frankly it was nice to know some of the upcoming challenges and what to expect. I’m sure I’ll do fine… nothing I haven’t experienced before. I know that teaching is not a profession that will make me rolling in money rich… but that was never my aim. I know that as long as I watch my spending and make a few smart investments I’ll be better off than not. It was also good that our prof. communicated to us that we need to take time for ourselves, wrt sleep, exercise and the things we enjoy doing.
The other idea communicated to us today was the passion that we should impart upon our students… I personally feel that you must have a passion for your area of study… this should be in place already before you hit the program. The idea of fostering passion within a student is relatively new to me… I guess all little kids are passionate about all things… you really only just have to hang on to their feeling, give them a few nudges to keep them on track, and 10000 years worth of evolutionary drive to learn will just take over – I really hope it’s just that simple.
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The other idea communicated to us today was the passion that we should impart upon our students… I personally feel that you must have a passion for your area of study… this should be in place already before you hit the program. The idea of fostering passion within a student is relatively new to me… I guess all little kids are passionate about all things… you really only just have to hang on to their feeling, give them a few nudges to keep them on track, and 10000 years worth of evolutionary drive to learn will just take over – I really hope it’s just that simple.
Q
Monday, September 17, 2007
Rubric construction
After the evaluation class today I kinda realize the value of rubrics now… it not only allows for the student to concentrate upon what the teacher expects them to learn but also serves as a good formative assessment tool not only for the teacher but for the student as well.
The idea of a rubric is really quite general and loose in its definition and construction, which lends flexibility to the construction allowing a wide range of goals to be met. However, being generally defined also allows inaccuracies to be worked into the rubric. This tool is quite powerful, and like any power tool conventional needs to be understood, safety guards in place, and some experience in order to be used effectively.
Q
The idea of a rubric is really quite general and loose in its definition and construction, which lends flexibility to the construction allowing a wide range of goals to be met. However, being generally defined also allows inaccuracies to be worked into the rubric. This tool is quite powerful, and like any power tool conventional needs to be understood, safety guards in place, and some experience in order to be used effectively.
Q
Technological Integration into the Classroom
For me as a person who really wants to make science accessible and understandable for my students, this week’s reading for my education technologies class simply excites me. I’ve always kind of had this vision of the dusty old teacher pulling out models and animals preserved in jars and stuff for biology class… but the idea of collecting and analysis of bioinformatics with my students is… well… wow! As an example, if I wanted to introduce some students to statistical principles, environmental concerns, diversity of life, and something like insect life cycles all at the same time… well it’s not hard. All I would have to do is get them involved in a project such as the “Monarch monitoring”. This program will send a teacher anywhere in Canada, the United States, or Mexico a bag full of Polyethylene tags and instructions on how to tag Monarch butterflies. I can then take the kids out teach them how to tag the Monarchs and apply the aspects of the Alberta curriculum into the exercise. The students can then look at data collected online from other learning centers and look at data from other years. Then I would show the students something amazing: Oecologia, Volume 125, Number 2, October 2000, pages 241-248… this little article uses data collected by scientists at Iowa State University on the effects of BT transgenic corn pollen and its lethal effects on Monarch Butterflies. This would allow the students to realize that they have done something worth while, and perhaps they would take a vested interest in this project and do some follow-up by themselves… this would be the start of inquiry, the very life-blood of science, it would also lead students down a road of life-long learning, and all from about 15 minutes of looking in the right places.
This story is not all rosy though… the absolute crush of information un-cited, cross-referenced, jargon filled, full of inaccuracies, holding values that are not appropriate… all these things need to be sorted by the teacher and the students need to be guided through them. It would be almost completely useless to simply turn a group of students ‘loose’ upon the internet to gather some information or reference material. Maybe some of them would learn something… but frankly, I don’t think there are many adults out there that know all the pitfalls of the internet. Furthermore, there are some things that a computer can never do for a student. For example students can learn all about the inner workings of a frog, but a real dissection still imparts a certain humility, and humbleness that only a small dead creature can contain.
There are still barriers that hamper the full use of technology in the classroom. The digital world demands it’s own set of problem solving techniques; techniques that a teacher would have to learn, and then impart upon his or her students. Another barrier is the sheer amount of information that is to be sorted is unimaginable. There is no way that any teacher can know about every educational tool out there. A third barrier is the rapid societal changes that the internet brings, for example ‘second life’, ‘facebook’, and ‘youtube’, are changing the way that students are looking at the world one video clip, one download, and one minute at a time. The social and cultural impacts of these technologies are not yet even fully understood by academia. These are but a few technological and societal barriers to overcome… there will be others of course, budgetary concerns and such will also prove difficult at times. But as teachers of a new generation I feel confident taking on these challenges. Q
This story is not all rosy though… the absolute crush of information un-cited, cross-referenced, jargon filled, full of inaccuracies, holding values that are not appropriate… all these things need to be sorted by the teacher and the students need to be guided through them. It would be almost completely useless to simply turn a group of students ‘loose’ upon the internet to gather some information or reference material. Maybe some of them would learn something… but frankly, I don’t think there are many adults out there that know all the pitfalls of the internet. Furthermore, there are some things that a computer can never do for a student. For example students can learn all about the inner workings of a frog, but a real dissection still imparts a certain humility, and humbleness that only a small dead creature can contain.
There are still barriers that hamper the full use of technology in the classroom. The digital world demands it’s own set of problem solving techniques; techniques that a teacher would have to learn, and then impart upon his or her students. Another barrier is the sheer amount of information that is to be sorted is unimaginable. There is no way that any teacher can know about every educational tool out there. A third barrier is the rapid societal changes that the internet brings, for example ‘second life’, ‘facebook’, and ‘youtube’, are changing the way that students are looking at the world one video clip, one download, and one minute at a time. The social and cultural impacts of these technologies are not yet even fully understood by academia. These are but a few technological and societal barriers to overcome… there will be others of course, budgetary concerns and such will also prove difficult at times. But as teachers of a new generation I feel confident taking on these challenges. Q
Friday, September 14, 2007
Thanks
Just wanted to say thanks for everyone in the MNO group that have either complemented me or just said Hi... the feeling of belonging is very important to everyone. I'll try my best to reciprocate.
Q
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Thursday, September 13, 2007
The teacher as a preformer
I never realized the value of Drama Education in a professional setting to this extent. Ideas about eye contact, how you hold yourself, how open your body stance is, and not being fidgety is actually quite important. Other concepts such as being calm and collected, not escalading conflicts, getting to know your student's names, getting your students to know each other, continuous formative assessment, using pauses and silences instead of speaking is really quite enlightening and definitely useful in a classroom situation. Also the little bits of legal issues that teachers must deal with are really quite counter-intuitive for me at least....
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Introduction to language in the classroom
The language class was quite different from what I expected. I knew that class called language would involve a lot of reading and writing. What I did not expect was the intraspective approach that this class has adoped.
Beyond that, a few quick notes: Language is not just a core subject but a vehicle for the delivery of every subject. The KSAs are really to be applied, I think, to all aspects of everything we do in PSI.
Ha... it's funny reading through this Language Arts textbook... I'm learning things that I think I really ought to have know about earlier... WAY eariler.
Q
Beyond that, a few quick notes: Language is not just a core subject but a vehicle for the delivery of every subject. The KSAs are really to be applied, I think, to all aspects of everything we do in PSI.
Ha... it's funny reading through this Language Arts textbook... I'm learning things that I think I really ought to have know about earlier... WAY eariler.
Q
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Curriculum and Instructions Class
Humm... this curriculum and instructions class I'm really enjoying already. We have been split up into our majors and will be presenting the K to 12 Alberta curriculum. The people in my group have a good idea of what we need to do and how to achieve it. I'm feeling good about learning how to teach my specific major.
Basking in the glory that is science... what else could one ask for?
Q
Basking in the glory that is science... what else could one ask for?
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Monday, September 10, 2007
General thoughts from curriculum lab orientation
In my last undergraduate degree I’ve hung out at the curriculum lab… it was kinda nice with comfortable places to sit and talk… it was as I thought it was just a place with lots of kids books. After today’s orientation it astounds me to know just how much information a materials there is physically at the curriculum lab. What’s even more astounding is the variety and the quantity of educational websites and multi-media curriculum development tools. The amount of pre-planned lesson plans, the ideas, the worksheets, the links and organized tools are well… I can’t really describe them. Today’s classroom experiences are really gonna be different from when I went through school. The integration of technologies and of data bases is going to be a key point for success not only for myself but for my students as well.
Q
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Friday, September 7, 2007
Random ramblings about blogging in the classroom
This blogging business is quite interesting. I am by nature not a person who writes journals. I have written journals before, journals in an industrial setting… journals with protocols, standard operating procedures, recipes (of the non-edible kind), and details about really boring stuff that were only pertinent to a nerd such as myself. Humm… Blogging eh?
Well let us look at this new form of communication with fresh eyes, the eyes not of a tiger but one more keen! The eyes of a teacher!
Blogging is definitely not hard to setup; a user friendly platform such as Blogger.com certainly makes it easy and fast. Once setup this utility allows teachers and ever technologically savvy students and parents to communicate with one another. Beyond the obvious uses of blogs, as journals with open to limited-source feedback and as private online diaries, good blogs can be used as a publication tool, an information tool, and a research tool. For example if I had a class of say 30 to 40 students, I assigned them a project regarding the functions of the heart… later on I find out that some of the students are struggling with the project, I can put up links, papers, pictures, notes, and even random thoughts onto my blog and have the students read it instead of flooding their email boxes with megabytes of information. But here is the real advantage of blogging… the students can now give me feedback immediately, other students will see this feedback then suddenly students are helping each other and I can help everyone at the same time.
Getting students to blog would also be an advantage. Not only is writing a journal something that might be useful to them later in life, maybe for something as simple as nostalgia or something really neat like a biography, but it would allow me as a teacher to gain some insight into what the students are thinking about, whether or not they are struggling through content, or social problems, or family problems, or if they are just having a great time. It is all useful information for me as a teacher especially if I wanted to monitor their writing skills. The student blogs would also be of use to other students, sharing of ideas or just sharing experiences it’s mostly good….
Now here is where blogs get dicey; blogs are none-the-less expressions of what our opinions are. They are potentially a source of sensitive information. Both teachers and students would have to be well informed of school board policies, internet safety, and galvanize their sense of tact in our expressions under the guise of anonymity. Teachers especially would have to beware of informed consent by parents, professional conduct, etc. But students, in preparation for the world of online communications, would have to be taught a vast amount of information.
Well all-in-all I think blogs are a powerful tool to be used with caution, but really lets look at the worst that can happen, assuming a teacher still adheres to the guidelines of professional conduct, if no one ever reads the teacher’s blog… well it still has a placebo effect on the only reader – the teacher… every little bit counts.
Q
Well let us look at this new form of communication with fresh eyes, the eyes not of a tiger but one more keen! The eyes of a teacher!
Blogging is definitely not hard to setup; a user friendly platform such as Blogger.com certainly makes it easy and fast. Once setup this utility allows teachers and ever technologically savvy students and parents to communicate with one another. Beyond the obvious uses of blogs, as journals with open to limited-source feedback and as private online diaries, good blogs can be used as a publication tool, an information tool, and a research tool. For example if I had a class of say 30 to 40 students, I assigned them a project regarding the functions of the heart… later on I find out that some of the students are struggling with the project, I can put up links, papers, pictures, notes, and even random thoughts onto my blog and have the students read it instead of flooding their email boxes with megabytes of information. But here is the real advantage of blogging… the students can now give me feedback immediately, other students will see this feedback then suddenly students are helping each other and I can help everyone at the same time.
Getting students to blog would also be an advantage. Not only is writing a journal something that might be useful to them later in life, maybe for something as simple as nostalgia or something really neat like a biography, but it would allow me as a teacher to gain some insight into what the students are thinking about, whether or not they are struggling through content, or social problems, or family problems, or if they are just having a great time. It is all useful information for me as a teacher especially if I wanted to monitor their writing skills. The student blogs would also be of use to other students, sharing of ideas or just sharing experiences it’s mostly good….
Now here is where blogs get dicey; blogs are none-the-less expressions of what our opinions are. They are potentially a source of sensitive information. Both teachers and students would have to be well informed of school board policies, internet safety, and galvanize their sense of tact in our expressions under the guise of anonymity. Teachers especially would have to beware of informed consent by parents, professional conduct, etc. But students, in preparation for the world of online communications, would have to be taught a vast amount of information.
Well all-in-all I think blogs are a powerful tool to be used with caution, but really lets look at the worst that can happen, assuming a teacher still adheres to the guidelines of professional conduct, if no one ever reads the teacher’s blog… well it still has a placebo effect on the only reader – the teacher… every little bit counts.
Q
Introducing The New, The Improved, EduLog
Hi my name is Qian, and welcome to my EduLog. This blog is set up as a tool for myself, and for others, as I make my journey through an undergraduate degree in Education. May all who read this blog find it somewhat informative… or at least somewhat entertaining? The content and roll of this particular blog will evolve through time as I evolve. If you have anything to add or to comment regarding this blog, I invite you to give me feed back.
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