Not much of a title but it does capture my current wonderings. I am very much intrigued by all I am reading about web 2.0 and definitely see the educational value. I also know that the value in the information I am learning in this class is all about how I will incorporate the material into what I do with kids. For me that is when it becomes valuable. As a teacher I realize kids learn by doing and real learning is measured when kids can make meaning and transfer learning to new situations. That being said I know I need to jump in and try some of this new technology. But I want to be sure I know enough so that it is a successful jump. I'm OK struggling, even gasping for air from time to time, but I don't want to sink! So where to start that is my question. I worry some about district concerns over student security. I had some digital images of students petri dishes on my web site with student first names as label and some in the district worried that I had exposed the kids too much. So what to do is my big question. My goal is to something concrete with my students before the year is out. I have a couple of thoughts and certainly welcome any suggestions:
1. Have students do some blogging around a book club type theme. I plan to have the students select from a number of titles about DNA/Genetics.
2. Have the class develop some kind of a wiki discussing global climate change.
3. I have seniors who will be completing an individual research project as their final exam in a senior environmental biology elective course I teach. There has always been a finding and contacting a expert element to this project. In my perfect world the students would find a local expert whom they could visit, maybe even shadow for a day, generally what I get is a description of a relatively meaningless phone discussion or very limited email. This might be a good place to integrate some of the connections from this class.
4. Some of my seniors are currently training rats as part of a unit in animal behavior. Part of the final assessment for this project is a video of their rat completing its maze or obstacle course. Sharing these tapes has always been difficult. Last year I had a few of my students post to youtube creating a webpage or wiki loaded with all the videos might be cool.
I welcome any suggestions!
1. Great idea: What if each student was responsible for blogging a specific part of the book. Example: Johnny Ch. 1, Susie: Ch. 3, etc. Other students would read and leave comments on each others blog posts. Now, as you got into the book, I would require that students link back to other chapters that others in the class have written about to show connections...as well as link to information on the web that extends their thinking or links to more information. This would also be required in the comments. So each day/week a student would be the "author" (blog post writer) and the rest of the class is the thinkers. You bring that online discussion back into the classroom everyday to complete the circle and discuss what Johnny read, or Billy explains his comment that he left on Susie's post. You have them on the screen at the front of the room and allow the discussion to lead to the next blog post....so powerful!
ReplyDelete2. Great idea: A different page for different issues..in small groups students are required to create their page if information linking to research on the web, embedding YouTube videos that help explain their issue, etc. Students could even grade each others based on layout, design, ease of access to information, and "Learnability" of the content on the page.
3. Podcast, video, or even just blog entries by students adn their thinking...putting their thinking and research out on the web to not only share, but just as you have done here...to allow others to comment and help them wit their project or idea.
4. Sounds great...upload to YouTube and create a page with all of them embedded. Students could then analyze the results of the rats and the race over and over again.
Thanks for the feedback, the great ideas and the encouragement! We are off "April Break" the week after next. Then back for the final two month push. My goal continues to get YouTube videos of rats & students blogging on DNA books.
ReplyDeleteI really like the book discussion idea - especially with the in-class discussion as a follow-up. Another idea (rather than one person per chapter) might be to allow students to each pick their own title. It sounds like it might be chaotic, but it's surprising how quickly the major themes are pulled out, allowing them to make connections between books. One good thing about this is that students can have a choice between fiction or non-fiction and there can also be a variety of reading levels available.
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