Get Them Blogging!

For the final assignment for this course, I wrote a plan for getting my students blogging. It is far from an original thought in this day and age, but for my site it is new and different.

As we move forward, I want the students to be prepared for the influx of access to technology, not just the Internet. Keeping this in mind, as well as the school’s goal of WICORizing the curriculum (embedding writing, inquiry, collaboration, organizing, and reading), I think blogging is an ideal way to to achieve these goals. 

Classroom Blogging Activity

Specific Course: Students enrolled in Computer Applications 7 will pilot student blogging by utilizing the teacher’s Edublogs Pro account.

Blog Usage: The teacher and students will be able to view each other’s blogs; however, the student blogs will only be accessible to the outside world with the password.

Timeline: This activity covers the initial setup of student blogs and postings and will cover a eight class periods.

 Day 1 & 2: Introduction to blogging

Day 3 & 4: Guided practice in setting up blog and publishing initial post

Day 5: Compose and publish post based on class blog prompt

Day 6 & 7: Comment and respond to classmates posts

Day 8: Reflect on the process, what worked, what didn’t work, challenges and how they were overcome. Shout-outs for classmates

Posts  & Comments: The class blog will contain a prompt or assignment from which students will compose posts on their individual blogs and comment as appropriate to either the class blog or fellow classmate blogs, if not both. The prompt will incorporate core course content to create a bridge between the computer application elective and academic courses.

Example of Post Prompts:

• Where I come from
• How PBIS has affected me
• My academic goals for the year
• How I prepared for my conference with my parents
• My Binder, my academic life
• My top math sites and why
• How having a laptop is going to change my study habits
• Digital curriculum and my learning style

Assessment: During this lesson students will be assessed by multiple measures including a checklist, observation, and rubric. A checklist will be used to track that students are able to independently log in to their account to create pages and posts, and manage comments. A rubric based on the University of Wisconsin’s Stout Blogging Rubric will be used to score posts, comments, and responses.

Other information: The vast majority of the students have limited access to the Internet outside of school, depending on Wi-Fi services at the local grocery store or hotspots when they travel an hour or more to town. With the new one-to-one initiative roll out coming soon, students at some point will have a device to take home, not right away but at some point in the school year.

Introduction to Blogging in the Classroom Lesson Plan

Date August 3	Class Computer Apps 7	C Edwards
Arizona Technology Standards	Strand 1: Creativity and Innovation Concept 4: Original Works PO 2: Use digital tools to synthesize information, produce original works, and express ideas. Strand 2: Communication and Collaboration Concept 1: Effective Communications and Digital Interactions PO 1: Collaborate and communicate with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital tools to share findings and/or publish. PO 2: Explain and demonstrate features, conventions, voice, and etiquette of interactive digital environments to communicate with an appropriate audience. Concept 2: Digital Solutions PO 1: Communicate and collaborate for the purpose of producing original works or solving problems. Strand 6: Technology Operations and Concepts Concept 1: Understanding PO 2: Define and apply knowledge of various technical process terms. PO 3: Choose technology applications appropriate for the audience and task. PO 4: Recognize and demonstrate ergonomically safe and sound use of equipment. Concept 2: Application PO 6: Identify criteria for evaluating technical and design qualities of a web site and then create web‐based content from the identified criteria.
Objective	Students will demonstrate the ability to utilize a blog as educational tool by: Independently accessing their Edublog account Opening the dashboard and set up their blog pages and appearance Compose and publish posts Comment on teacher and other students blog posts Utilizing keyboarding skills
Essential Questions	What is a blog?Who has a blog?How can I enhance my learning by using a blog?Do you think a blog or the post’s appearance matters?
Anticipatory Set	Do any of you like to write? We all use Cornell Notes at this school; you also have learning logs, and have to write summaries and reflections of your learning. How many of you would like to do that digitally?  Have you ever looked at a website thought  “wow, whoever did this really did a good job.” or found that one site that was just horrible? Did you every think you would have your own unique website…Well now you will!
Direct Instruction
Modeling	Describe what a blog is and show a collection of blogs from the Edublog Class DirectoryDemonstrate: How to navigate to Edublogs and bookmark the site How to login and logout of the site How to navigate the site Posts – create and edit Upload media Pages – create and edit Comments Appearance Preview How to create a page How to create and publish a post
Guided Practice	The students will work with a shoulder partner coaching each other through the steps of as the teacher guides them through: Logging into Edublogs Navigating to pages Creating class page Creating  and publishing initial post
Check for Understanding	Discuss what is appealing or not in the selected blogsMove about the room to observes studentsThink-Pair-ShareRandom Reporter
Independent Practice	Students will create a post in response to a prompt on the classroom blog and comment on two student blogs, and respond appropriately to any responses on their post.
Closure	This is the first in a series of lessons. Students will use the product of this lesson as a foundation for future class/school assignments.Reflection/Class discussion: How do you think using blogging will help you in reflecting on your learning? What is the impact of responding to other students using comments on their blog? Is it different from just telling them? Do you see the need for keyboarding skills in relation to your blogging?
Assessment	Checklist – Students demonstrate they can log in, navigate Edublogs, create posts and comments independently Rubric – Student blogs, post, and comments assessed based on the University of Wisconsin – Stout Blogging Rubric, created by Karen Franker. Observation – Work ethic: time on task, collaboration, organization, safe and appropriate use of technology, proper keyboarding technique
Resources/Materials	Computer with authorized Internet AccessVocabulary listEdublog Pro subscriptionEdublog Directory – Class BlogsEdublog tutorials: Set up My Class for managing student blogs How students create their own blog and Join a Class Using My Class Student Blogging

 

A Blogging Plan!

A plan, a plan! I have a plan to make my teacher site a blog. To have more than the static welcome and required pages is my plan.

So far, other than maybe a cursory update none of the teachers at our school actually uses their sites. If I challenged the teachers to login, I would venture to say that 90%, or more,  wouldn’t even know their logins, much less where to go to access their page. Therefore, I am challenging myself to start actually using my site. Who knows, maybe it will be catching and others will follow.

While some content will stay the same, such as they course syllabus and contact information, the front page needs to become dynamic. This is where the plan comes into play. I am going to boldly go from nothing to an average of 2 posts a week! This is an aggressive schedule, but one that will hopefully garner a readership (even if it is an assigned one).

Week of:	Entry Type & Topic	Theme	Posting Date
August 3 – 9	Discussion – How PBIS is changing the school List – 5 positive changes on campus	School Culture	August 3 August 6
August 10 – 16	Goal Setting – SMART Goals Links – Career/Interest Inventories	Achievement	August 10 August 13
August 17 – 23	DIY – How to Prepare for Student Led Conferences List – Binder Checklist	Achievement Responsibility	August 17 August 21
August 24 – 30	Links – Best math sites for fluency practice	Achievement	August 24
August 31 – September 6	Event – The Great Device Roll Out List – Steps to care for your device	School Culture Responsibility	August 31 September 3
September 7 – 13	Discussion – Should students/parents have to pay a fee or provide insurance to take a laptop home?	Responsibility Achievement	September 7
September 14 – 20	Discussion – How is Digital Curriculum Affecting You? Links – Keyboarding sites	Achievement	September 14   September 17
September 21 – 27	Discussion – Do you affect the attendance competition? List – Benefits of attending school	School Culture   Achievement	September 21   September 24
September 28 – October 4	Guest Blogger	Respect	Week of September 28

The challenge is set! Let the blogging begin…

 

Top Cool Tools Courtesy of 537

For my final post of the year I decided to compile a linked list of my favorite sites and apps I learned about from my fellow classmates and one or I stumbled onto myself. Oh, did I mention…they are FREE!

 

a graphic bookmark app that allows you to create your own mix of sites and the option to choose from a gallery of webmixes shared by other users. A mix can be tiles with links or set up as a feed reader.

 

an audio or video podcast recording app. Free, easy to use, and embeds easily into blogs

 

 

 

safe one-way messaging for teachers to broadcast to students and/or parents without number sharing or one-to-one private     messaging

 

 

 

 

cool site  with lots of images to help you visualize the  space offering that also provides links to the various design elements to add the finishing touches to your newly designed space

 

 

 

 

 

visual acknowledgement that is positive reinforcement for selected behaviors. Each student has a cool little alien monster avatar. Generates reports for teachers and/or parents about behaviors

 

What’s all this Writing About?

One of the most common topics while sitting in the teachers’ lounge or at any professional development session is the need for students to write. You hear comments like “students write as if they are texting,” “their writing is horrid,” and so on. The list of concerns goes on, but you get the drift. In short, the students appear to have little to no command of writing conventions. Everyone is going in circles trying to figure out how to get students to write complete sentences that makes sense. It seems as if writing went from the staunch grammar class side (gerunds and past present perfect participles still give me the willies) to the casual side of “oh, they will get it if they read their own writing.”

We know students are in dire need of writing experiences that have a purpose (not busy work), and if, it will instill a desire to write more, that would be ideal. I, too, see the need to get students to communicate effectively using the printed word. Blogging will get students writing. After all, that is what blogging is all about. It is the desire to get my students composing that prompted me to take this class. I have tried talking various administrators into letting me blog with my computer classes for years but to no avail. I figured maybe if I took the class, I would have a solid foundation on which to base my request.
Like a lot of others, I subscribe to numerous RSS feeds, most have something to do with food. I love baking and cooking and have many food allergies, so I like getting recipes I don’t have to adapt. One of the blogs I follow is Foodie Fiasco. The site is the creation of a teenage girl. She has been blogging about her adventures in the kitchen for a couple of years now. She is not the only school-aged person out there running a blog, so I am thinking, “why wouldn’t this work with my students?”

There is a lot of information out there about student blogs. Just about every article I read for this course expounded on the fact that blogging is writing…with a purpose. In the article Blogs: personal e-learning spaces, it describes blogs as just an extension of the tried and true learning logs and journals. Blogs take something personal and turn it into a “public performance space” (Lamshed, Berry, and Armstrong, 2002). O’Donnell cites a 2004 article by Clancy Ratliff that explains that, by blogging, students create a learning community. As they interact with one another, they are actually synthesizing information, which we know is at the top of the learning pyramid (2006).

Why not capitalize on what the students are already doing and build on it with blogging? Have them take their class notes, learning logs, and such and turn them into a blog that will foster collaboration and communication. Many of the students I work with are very creative, so let’s give them a forum to express their innate sense of imagination and share it with their peers.

Credits:

Lamshed, R., Berry, M. & Armstrong, L. (2002). Blogs: Personal e-learning spaces. Australia: Binary Blue. Retrieved from http://www.binaryblue.com.au/docs/blogs.pdf

O’Donnell, M. (2006). Blogging as pedagogic practice: Artefact and ecology. Asia Pacific Media Educator, 17(1), 15-19

 

Communication Poll

When I read this weeks assignment I instantly knew I wanted to use Poll Everywhere. I have used Survey Monkey in the past, but it isn’t my favored service. Give it a try, just click on your choice in each of the polls.

Poll 1:

 

See Live Results for Poll 1

Poll 2:

See Live Results for Poll 2

 

Chirbit Tutorial

Chirbit may be old to you, but it is new to me and is turning out to be a great online audio app. The tutorial video I selected from the YouTube library highlights how this app can be used to add audio options, including for your RSS feed. I am still tinkering with the transcribe option and am determined to figure it out.

Credit:

MS Sguest. (2013, September 29). http://www.chirbit.com/ for Hangout on air podcasters [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtRK-USeJc

 

Online Audio Recording Options

Here is my review of two free online recording options: Vocaroo and Chirbit.

 

 

Technology Pyramid

I was replying to a comment  on the Narcissus and Microwaves post Angie made in regards to the food pyramid and got to thinking there might be one for technology. I found a cool technology pyramid and  thought I would share it with all of the readers.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Credit:

Penny, S. (n.d.). Bloom’s Taxonomy Pyramid. Retrieved from http://faculty.indstate.edu/spenney/bdt.htm

 

Narcissists and Microwaves

Reading the take away statements for the required articles made me laugh. Especially the last statement “the only thing that can be said about today’s student, based upon reliable and valid research, is that they are more narcissistic than any previous generation.” Talk about hitting the nail on the head!

Having been a classroom teacher for the past 20+ years, I have noticed that students really have changed. I don’t think it is because the are “digital natives” so much as they come from a microwave mentality. Notions like soft skills, work ethics, and effective effort seem to be lost on today’s students.  They are use to computers and other devices that make life easier and as a result are not use to working for something.

Step outside of the classroom for a moment and think back to the last meal or snack you made… Be honest, how many of you opened a can or a box (either from the cupboard or freezer), or a combination of the two and stirred the concoction together and called it cooking? To take that one step further, how many of you cooked verses microwaved? Personally, I tend to cook from scratch partially because of food allergies, mostly because I like to know what I am eating, but I digress.

Now, some of you may be asking what does cooking have to do with digital natives, well a lot actually. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and see. Remember the proverbial Sunday fried-chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and hot biscuit dinners grandmother made from scratch? Then came hamburger helper, and McDonalds. If you take a look back in history for the past 30-40 years you will see there are some direct correlations between the decline of home meal preparation and introduction of digital technology. It seems the more tech-type stuff we add to our lives the less we actually have to do. This applies to the educational system as well. We went from constructed responses to the easy to grade multiple-choice test and from research papers to essays – going from pages to paragraphs. Reeves quotes Oblinger and Oblinger’s 2005 study that stated while today’s students may be adept at using technology, their knowledge of the IT devices is only superficial.

The microwave or fast-food mentality has bled over into the classroom. Yes, students are used to using technology to make their lives easier: text messaging to ask a question instead of talking to their parents, sitting in front of a TV to play video games instead of playing outside, or calling/messaging friends instead of face-to-face communication (or often doing both at the same time with the same people). The key here is they are using technology to make their personal lives easier or for instant gratification, they are not necessarily using it to improve their academic achievement.  As Brown and Duguid point out in the Reeves article “access to information does not equate to knowledge.”

So for my colleges who think we need to change our order of business to accommodate Prensky’s new digital student, I say:

“Yes, there are differences in the generations. Yes, there are students who were born and raised using IT devices. However, as research and evidence support, good teaching is still good teaching, and reading and thinking skills are still required to be successful. We do need to incorporate technology to enhance learning, not use technology to supplant teaching.”

We need to focus our energy on the substance of learning, not spend so much time on identifying students’ technological origins. It is what we are delivering that is important, not so much the tools we use. In keeping with the food analogy, if you want a pizza you don’t care what the delivery driver is driving as much as you care that your pizza is tasty, delivered hot, in 30 minutes or less…

Resources:

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants – Part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6). Retrieved fromhttp://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

McKenzie, J. (2007). Digital nativism: Digital delusions and digital deprivation. From Now On, 17(2). Retrieved fromhttp://fno.org/nov07/nativism.html

Reeves, T.C. (2008). Do generational differences matter in instructional design? Online discussion presentation to Instructional Technology Forum from January 22-25, 2008 at http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper104/ReevesITForumJan08.pdf

 

 

Switching Gears

My name is Randi, and I’m Cheronne’s quirky daughter. Earlier this week, my mom asked me to be her guest blogger  and I quickly agreed even though I didn’t have any idea of what to write about.  So here goes…

Switching gears later in life is fun and terrifying at the same time. One day, you’re living the average teenager’s dream of all day binge television and video games, not having a (traditional wage earning) job, and spending all day in your pajamas. Then you realize that you are going to have to clean up your mess. Okay, no big deal. Oh, you also have to clean the kids’ messes, the dogs’ messes, and your husband’s messes. Suddenly, your inner teenager is eager to get out of the house and do something other than clean and watch tv.

So, you sit down and think about what you want to do with your life. You’re 31, you have a bunch of pre-med and physical science college courses under your belt, and you feel like a stagnant failure. You’re one class from one degree, three from another degree, and you want nothing to do with either degrees. Great. Now you’re a monetary wastrel.  Congratulations!  You have decided that you suck at life  However, you’ve got a couple things going for you. You are smart, and you’re a great cook. Your kids don’t hate you, and you’re a pretty solid wife as well. These things don’t overpower the bad, but they at least level the playing field. Now it’s time to tip the balance.

Alright, back to what you want to do with your life. You love being creative, but there’s the phrase “starving artist” for a really good reason. That’s not something to do with your life, it’s something to enhance your life. Then, later on, you’re sitting in a recliner and braiding your daughters hair. At that moment, your epiphany dawns on you.  You want to go to beauty school.

3 weeks later, you sit down and realize that…woah…after years of indecision and inaction, you have officially shifted gears and started moving forward with your life. You’ve enrolled in a local beauty school, set up your funding, locked in your start date, and figured out how to shift around the home paradigm. Life is now crazy.

Okay, so all of this would be true, if you were me. I spent half of my adult life in menial, entry level jobs, and the other half as a stay at home mom. As amazing as my family is, I still felt adrift and unfulfilled. My husband has an amazing job, and is able to provide the kids and I with a fairly comfortable lifestyle. He’s also my best friend and biggest supporter.  My family life is wonderful, but I also needed to face facts. My husband’s job is not the safest. He does environmental cleanup and chemical remediation. If something were to ever happen to him, I would totally be unprepared and unable to support the kids and myself. Action was needed. I needed to do something with my life, but I also needed to enjoy what I did.

I’ve been in cosmetology school for about five months, now. It has been a very challenging experience that has taught me a lot about myself and my abilities. It has taught me that it’s okay to want more out of life, and that it’s okay to go after those wants. I’ve fallen behind on house cleaning, and the kids are helping pick up the slack, because they are amazing. You know what? I think they get that from their mother.