Journal 1

ShiffletToledo, RenaCheri (June/July 2).Extreme Makeover: Updating Class Activities for the 21st Century. Learning & Leading with Technology. 35, 34-35.

The article is about using Web-based applications which are social in nature and enable users to collaborate and publish. Students can use Zoho writer to collaboratively create a newsletter and the final product can be published to the web. Students can use wiki’s to create collaborative research based materials and other projects.

The article warns of the dark side of these applications as well. But hopefully the authors state that this will be an opportunity to teach responsible and ethical use of collaborative tools. Activities should be designed to use the tools for constructive purposes.

Question:

How would I design a project so that students will use the collaborative tools for constructive purposes?
I would require student input into the creation of the project. If students choose their own project in a carefully guided atmosphere of course they are more likely to utilize the technology for the advancement of their own mastery of the content and use of technology.

Mader Smith, Jared Ben (June/July 2).Blogging Right Along. Learning & Leading with Technology. 35, 36-39.

This article focuses upon what it takes to become as successful science student. The students in this science class regularly demonstrate their learning through participation in classroom activities, experimentation, demonstrations, and lecture. Students also blog about their learning using iweb on a daily or weekly blog. They use a variety of media to demonstrate mastery of the material.

This allows:

• teachers to identify that the objectives of the lesson were met
• absent students direct access to the material
• serves as a time line of classroom events for content review
• Peer to peer assessment of assignments can occur
• allows reflection of the process by teachers

Question:

How would I use a blog in my classroom?

Of course I believe that it would depend upon who I was teaching. But I certainly would make the creation of a blog a collaborative process. I would assess my student’s technological savvy first and be sure that the ELL students were not too tied to text based assignments. I would be sure that guidelines were clear for blogging and that students understood their ethical responsibilities for creation of this community online.