Wow! That was harder than I thought! Of course, it didn't help that the avatar page needed refreshing often!
It's easy to create the page, though! I can see how this would be helpful both at home and at school. I need to learn more about gadgets, as that was something I couldn't "play with" and figure out! I could see setting up places on the blog to post assignments, clarify things that didn't go well in class, or ask questions for students to comment on to carry on a class dialogue (like I did with the wikis last year).
I could also see multiple blogs -- one for the family, if I could get them to read and respond. But this was easy and very cool to set up. Hopefully, I'll learn more about adding audio, etc. so that the blog can be more interesting.
As far as your suggested questions, I really just want to know how to use these technologies to motivate students, especially since I teach the most reluctant, disconnected readers! If I could get them interested and involved, that would be great!
As I go, I know I will think of specific ways that I can use the blog -- and I know the students I have in Practical Literacy would much rather communicate facelessly with me through the blog than in class!
Absolutely the way to go to motivate your students (I remember the group you had this year) -- Several in your dept. have used blogs successfully to keep the discussion going beyond class time -- Ben and Jeff C. come to mind. It is surely the kids' preferred mode of communication and, as you point out, many can take more risks in the online environment.
ReplyDeleteI hear you, it was harder than I anticipated, and not as clear. But I will stick with it and hopefully be able to utilize some of this with my students.
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