6.21.09

http://voicethread.com/share/551617/

Chapter 7--Richardson

I've never used Flickr before but Richardson has me convinced that this is a great tool for students, both for managing their own photos/images and for using the search feature. Because I am a new user, I registered for an account and just took a little time to play around with the search feature. I'm amazed at how easy it is to find great images--I have to admit I spent more time searching than I had anticipated. I entered "West Liberty, Iowa" and ended up looking at the entire wedding album of someone I didn't even know!



When using this with students, it will be important to include a documentation component into the lesson. Richardson made the point that perhaps students are more likely to see the need for asking for permission or given credit to the author, as it seems as if the images are coming more from people than websites. I can already think of ways that Flickr might be a useful resource for the ELL, Spanish language, and Spanish Speakers classes that do research projects on Latin American countries.


One aspect that attracted me to this resource in terms of its educational use is the ability to restrict who views photos. I would be anxious about using any tool that didn't allow students and classes privacy, so I'm glad Flickr allows users this option.

Chapter 6 Richardson

Of the tools discussed in Chapter 6 by Richardson, the one I am most excited about is Social Bookmarking. Last class period, I signed up for my first social bookmarking tool--Diigo! I was impressed with how easy it was to use and I like that I could highlight or annotate the pages I saved. Annotation is a reading strategy a lot of our teachers use--students are already familiar with the idea of "talking back to the text"--why shouldn't they do this with online text as well? I'd like to work with a few teachers to use Diigo in their research projects that we have team-taught this year. Richardson's example of the teacher who uses Diigo's sticky-note function to respond to student weblogs is also exciting. Both feedback from teachers and peers could be collected using this tool.

One of the best notes about Diigo is how webpages can be preserved. Preservation has been an issue we have studied in many of our classes so far. With print resources, chances are, they will always be able to be tracked down in one library or another. But digital research is the way of the world now--and what happens when pages are taken down? Are they lost forever? I like that with Diigo, one can save pages in an archive, even if they no longer exist on the web.

One shift that research seems to be making is the transition toward a more collaborative model. In my library skills class, students learn how to use online subscription databases and the free web, but I'm definitely going to add a lesson on the benefits of using Diigo Search. One popular research topic is "Cell Phone Use in Schools"--when I typed this in to the search bar, Diigo pulled up four extremely relevant hits. This number is manageable and it shows students what sites others have been looking at regarding this topic.

Richardson--Chapter 5

As I learn more about RSS in this chapter, I'm changing my mind on the time factor involved in blogging. As many of us have pointed out in our posts, reading and creating these classroom and educator blogs seems like such a great teaching tool, but we wonder where we'll find the time to track down all these great blogs. But it sounds like RSS actually will be somewhat of a time saver once we identify the blogs we'd like to read on a regular basis.

I wonder how challenging it will be to teach students how to use RSS feeds for their own uses. Or, maybe I'm being naive and they already are! Maybe before tackling the use of RSS feeds for research, it would be a good idea to teach all students how to use Google Reader and simply start with subscribing to a feed of personal interest. I'm interested in trying out Richardson's idea of using RSS search feeds with students working on research projects.

One point Richardson makes that will be especially important for my students (and me!) to latch onto is that the user needs to find an effective organizational scheme, by creating folders and topics. Richardson addressed one of my concerns on p.77 with the tip advising teachers to simply subscribe to their students' class blogs, rather than visiting each one separately. That seems to be a much more efficient way to comment on their work and check to make sure their postings are appropriate.

School Blogs

School Blogs

AP Calculus AB
Mr. Kuropatwa
http://apcalc06.blogspot.com/

Mr. Kuropatwa's example of a classroom blog is excellent. The students are clearly active and engaged participants, and the blog seems like a tool they use to enrich the classroom experience, not replace it. The blog serves multiple purposes. Some of these include: a record of class notes, a place where students reflect on each unit in writing, review exercises for exams, a place to find links to calculus and study tips, and a place where teacher and students build a different kind of camaraderie.

I have often heard math teachers complain that the phrase "writing across the curriculum" does not apply to them. This blog would be a great way to demonstrate that students can use writing in math to reflect on their learning in a way that is meaningful. Maybe it's because my background is in teaching English, but I was so impressed at the realizations students were coming to in each unit's reflection. In the AP Calculus AB blog, students also take turns being "scribes" for class notes and exercises. This puts students in the roles of both teacher and learner--what a great idea!

This blog was easy to navigate. There wasn't too much else "going on" on the page besides the daily posts. The applications and links that were added were done so deliberately--other math blogs, links to study tips, a visitor section, the blog archive.

Mighty Writers 2008-2009
Marc Alhness
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=41233

The purpose of Alhness's blog seems to be to provide a journaling/writing exercise space for his third grade students. This blog is set up a little differently than the AP Calculus blog. Instead of having students' comments directly on Alhness's blog, each student has their own blog that links to the teacher's. From Alhness's blog, student see their writing assignments and then post from their own blogs. On the students' pages, there is an "About the blogger" but not on the teacher's page.

Commenting seems to occur on this blog, but not as much as the AP Calculus blog, which is authored by older students. Students seem to have a few comments on posts here and there, but commenting on other students' blogs/posts does not seem to be a component of this activity. Ahlness has links posted to other classes that blog and I notice that students from other classes have communicated with Alhness, complimenting them on their posts and inviting them to start a dialogue. This seems to be a writing tool that Alhness uses on a regular basis with his students.

Educator blogs

Educator Blogs

Will Richardson:
http://weblogg-ed.com/
weblogg-ed: learning with the read/write web

This blog is a comprehensive source for information on the educational use of blogging. Richardson is clearly an expert in the field and his posts reflect up to date knowledge and credibility. His blog postings, which range from topics like using blogs for collaboration to how e-books are changing the way people read, are organized using Pageflakes. He has links to literally hundreds of other blogs with similar topics and has organized these blogs through the subheadings like Blogs on Educational Blogging, Blogs about Literacy, Brain and Cognition Blogs, Classroom Blogs, Teacher Blogs, and Student Blogs.

Richardson's blog postings are organized using Pageflakes and although it is hard to discern from the Pageflakes page the date of his postings, they are very current. His last posting appears to be from the 19th of this month and he appears to post almost daily. Judging from the number of comments on most of his posts, Richardson has a strong following and an active web audience. Overall, his blog seems to serve two purposes: advertising and promoting his workshops and reflecting on current trends in the use of the Read/Write web.

I found Richardson's blog to be the more user friendly of the two blogs. It was easy to navigate through his separate pages without having to re-enter the url to get to the home page. His page on RSS feeds (from his book) struck me as particularly helpful and as a teacher who is just learning about the possibilities of the Read/Write web, this would be a good place to start for general information.



David Warlick
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
2 Cents Worth: Teaching and Learning in the New Information Landscape

In Warlick's "About" page, he describes the purpose of his blog as a place to have his ideas "criticized, deconstructed, recombined, added to, and, when possible, to be used." Just as Richardson explains in his book, Warlick resists the idea of comparing his blog to a diary--yet he acknowledges that it is not entirely unlike a diary. He points to one difference--many of his blogs are questions, designed to spur thinking about the effectiveness of our educational system. One of the neatest features of Warlick's blog is the Tag cloud that highlights the most used phrases in his blog, comments, and posts in the past 30 posts and 120 comments. At the time of my reviewing his blog, the 4 most commonly used terms seemed to be: Warlick, conferences, e-learning, and video games.

To learn more about David Warlick, visitors to this blog can also go to http://davidwarlick.com/. This is where information about Warlick's credentials can be found. Warlick's content in his blogs seemed a bit more related to personal interest than Richardson's. While Richardson focused primarily on the classroom and on the use of technology in education, Warlick's blog seemed more general, asking and answering questions about education, in general.

I had a problem navigating easily through Warlick's blog, not all his links to separate pages led back to the home page of his blog. I did enjoy Warlick's Podcast link, which featured interviews with experts in the area of technology use in education. His "guests" credentials were clearly stated in the introductions to the podcasts. Judging from his "Reading" link, Warlick stays extremely current with his reading on topics of education. His latest post was from yesterday, and there were a good deal of posts he had written in response to research he has done just this month. There didn't seem to be nearly as many comments on this blog as on Richardson's.

Chapter 2: Weblogs--Pedagogy and Practice

Reactions to Chapter 2:

• The author mentioned "Meredith's Page!", the blog of a former student who reflected on her work and assignments. Writing portfolios are used in many English or composition classes. Having students create a Blog Portfolio might be a fun way to encourage more collaboration between students and give students a wider audience for their work.
• I've never thought about the distinction between blogging and journaling (p. 20)--this would be an interesting and valuable discussion to have with students
• The author mentions his surprise at how frequently his students used the journalism class weblog. This year, I set up a Ning site for my library skills classes for students to blog on their SSR books and respond to prompts about their research process. Like Richardson, I was surprised at how many students used the NING site outside of class time when there was no expectation or requirement to do so.
• I think a class portal blog is a terrific idea. Having said that, from a practical standpoint, many teachers don't have easy access to labs and not all students have computers/internet access at home.
• I really like the idea of students collaborating through blogs with people outside of their school, like authors, people in the workforce, and other students.
• As an English teacher, I tried to teach writing as a continual process. It was often a challenge to get students to see that writing involves collecting feedback, thinking, re-writing, and more re-writing. Using a blog in an writing setting would promote the idea that writing is a continual process.
• I just checked out the AP Calc Blog--WOW! Something to strive for...I'm already thinking of ways I can use a weblog for my Library Skills classes.