My RSS Feeds and why:
Bud Talbot because he is a science teacher and technology enthusiast. He is very involved in teaching science, has many years of teaching under his belt, and already adds tech to the classroom with success. Since my goal is to do the same, I thought he would be a great resource. He has a post specifically on science and web2.0 technologies. He focused on blogging, microblogging, and collaboration docs like google docs, all of which we are doing or talking about right now. I found this to be very helpful.
Connecting news with National Science Education Standards because in teaching science it is important to be aware of not only state standards and goals, but also the science goals of our country since we are currently afraid of being the country left behind. This is a great place to find out about the current trends in science education?technology included.
ECH Houston feed because it is all about Middle School Science. They have activities, resources, content focus weeks, and question and answer sections to help drive enthusiasm into the classroom. Many of the posts are dates for conferences and online learning session for content specific focuses; there are also links to helpful places and activities.
Ed Tech 4 Science is pretty self-explanatory; it is all about teachers trying to add tech to science classrooms, how they do it, what they are doing, and how it all went. It?s great place to go for ideas. There are all sorts of things from cell raps, lab demos, to articles about how the old ways of teaching are not going to work anymore.
Educational Technology and Change Journal is the one I will head to for background on education and technology without it being content specific. This is useful for background and reasoning for the technology use in the classroom.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
BP1_2009_9301_reasonsforblogging
When researching about blogging I came across an article from Educause about some uses for blogging. I have included some of the common below, and some I came up with as ways I might add blogging to my seventh grade science classes. I found out that blogging started out as an online journal of sorts; but through the ingenuity of others there are now many ways teachers and students can edublog.
*One simple way is for teachers to use it as a home page where they can; post assignments, projects, deadlines, expectations, contact times, extra notes, and clarification. This is easier to do than trying to create a functional web page, especially if a teacher does not know code.
*Blogs can be used to supply students with references for practice work or research for more knowledge on each unit.
*They can also be used to organize or even start in-class discussions. Students can write an ongoing blog of their learning (a learning journal) and the teacher can evaluate this blog as part of the class?s grade. This is effective because even the students who hate to speak in class can still be given a voice, without the pressure of public speaking.
* It can be used to catch students up who were absent. The blog could be about what went on in class each day. The teacher, or a student of the week, could update the missing class blog either weekly or daily.
*Blogs can also be used to address concerns, thoughts, or even ideas that were started in class, but then the class ran out of time. This is a great way to have the students continue learning even after they have left the classroom. Students who need time to process can add to a class think-tank blog and be able to prove their knowledge and even help others.
The possibilities are only as limited as the imagination. The more you think outside the box about how blogging can be use, the more uses you will find, each with massive learning potential.
EduCause article:
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/EducationalBlogging/157920
*One simple way is for teachers to use it as a home page where they can; post assignments, projects, deadlines, expectations, contact times, extra notes, and clarification. This is easier to do than trying to create a functional web page, especially if a teacher does not know code.
*Blogs can be used to supply students with references for practice work or research for more knowledge on each unit.
*They can also be used to organize or even start in-class discussions. Students can write an ongoing blog of their learning (a learning journal) and the teacher can evaluate this blog as part of the class?s grade. This is effective because even the students who hate to speak in class can still be given a voice, without the pressure of public speaking.
* It can be used to catch students up who were absent. The blog could be about what went on in class each day. The teacher, or a student of the week, could update the missing class blog either weekly or daily.
*Blogs can also be used to address concerns, thoughts, or even ideas that were started in class, but then the class ran out of time. This is a great way to have the students continue learning even after they have left the classroom. Students who need time to process can add to a class think-tank blog and be able to prove their knowledge and even help others.
The possibilities are only as limited as the imagination. The more you think outside the box about how blogging can be use, the more uses you will find, each with massive learning potential.
EduCause article:
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/EducationalBlogging/157920
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)