Gaining Confidence in the World of Blogging
Angela Williams
Walden University
Kathryn Arnold
EDUC
6710J
Understanding
the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society
(edited) September 11, 2019
Module 1, Assignment 1
September 8, 2019
Blogging,
Twittering and using Social Media can be intimidating. Learning to write a quality letter telling
Grandma what has been going on in your life was also intimidating. In the field of 21st Century education
using a blog format is perhaps essential to meet our students where they
are. Teachers need not be afraid of this
new (to some) form of communication with their students. The first steps for an educator that is timid
about these forms of communication can be as simple as finding an educational
leaders blog or Twitter account and follow them and read. Eventually the timid will turn into trying it.
The insights I
gathered from the educational leaders I chose to follow all had one thing in
common, student success. I did find a Twitter
account that is trying to promote other education ‘Tweeters’, Top Education
Tweets @topedutweets. I will have to
continue to see if this account does share quality and non-biased information.
I chose to follow
my own school district, the others in my group, Edutopia and We are Teachers as
well. I always seem to be able to find
quality and relevant information on these two websites. The school district I am in is actively
reinventing itself. Part of that
reinvention is not only offering new and current courses in its curriculum but
also highlighting through media and technology positive things that are
happening in our district. Websites and their blogs for companies like Edutopia
and We are Teachers I find are great sources to find quality articles that give
information that can help me as an educator.
I think what I
have learned about blogging and microblogging that I did not know before is
that there are still people my age and younger that do not know the basics. I am honestly surprised that my high school
students have trouble navigating a blog, but they are pros at texting and Twitter,
not to mention SnapChat. But if they
have to write more than a limited amount of characters, they are stumped. I myself learned only 3 years ago what a hashtag
was for in microblogging. Now I can’t get enough of it and enjoy using Instagram
more because of it. It is possible that I have become proficient according to RWRCOEL
Technology Proficiencies.
I currently am
using a Web 2.0 source called Edmodo in my classroom with all of my classes (Edmodo.com). I use it to post notices to my students,
daily assignments and share information with my students. Each class has a page, which is great because
it keeps them all separate, and I can specialize the information for each
class. I just learned about this source
when I started at my new position and I am so far in love with it. I can even grade the assignments I post and
grade them there. I then download the graded
assignments to an excel form and then upload that to the required SISK12 grade
book. It has a library I can upload documents to and I can either make them
private or shareable to others. It has a
blog feature too so that I can share information to other teachers.
My students are
enjoying it too. It cuts down on papers
they must carry with them and if they are working on the assignment at home,
they can save their work to the class page.
For this course,
here is my blog and Twitter for this class:
My accounts:
My original Tweet
for this course was:
#EDUC6710 One thought I had about being able to use Twitter in my
classroom was to have students post with a # their observations of engineering
that made them stop and go, hmmmmm, how can I make a better mousetrap?
From following my
classmates in this course, I have seen various levels of technological skills. I am honestly surprised at the amount of
those younger than me, that were born in this age of technology, are timid of
using Web 2.0 technology. What I have
gained from these posts though are many sources for new tech tools for my
classroom. I can never have too much information
to help me be a stronger educator.
Blogging in my
classroom and using technology like Edmodo (edmodo.com) is now a daily
activity. My students read assignment
notices and blog their responses to me in the blogging section of the
site. The use of the Web 2.0 technology
in my classroom with my students fulfills the following and other RWRCOEL Technology
Proficiencies:
3. Communication and
Collaboration: Candidates use digital media tools in communicating and working
collaboratively with students, families, colleagues, and community stakeholders
to improve and/or enhance student learning. a. The candidate communicates relevant
information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and colleagues using a
variety of digital-age media and formats to improve and/or enhance student
learning. b. The candidate evaluates a variety of professional communication
tools to improve collaboration with all stakeholders.
This is a retweet
that I enjoyed reading:
In the article, teachers were polled and
shared their thoughts on why students study and don’t study when they know retakes
of a test are available. The main focus of the article talks about the reasoning
behind why and why not allow students to retake assessments. Some teachers are strict about not allowing retakes
on assessments, regardless of the reason for the request to retake. Other teachers shared their thoughts and
reasoning as to how retaking an assessment is a positive learning experience
for the student. My thoughts are, it
depends on the situation pertaining to the student. Currently, I am allowing students to retake a
chapter test due to their extended absence from school due to illness.
I also replied, contributed to, a classmate’s
blog with a “Hello”. It is classmate
Kevin Wilson, https://waldentechlife.blogspot.com/
. Mr. Wilson also wrote an impressive
blog on his site about blogging in his history classroom. A history class is a quality location to have
blogging and then research and us of the Web.
I look forward to reading more about his classroom and perhaps get some
ideas on how I can do the same in my classroom.
I am looking forward to learning
more about using Web 2.0 and blogs and microblogs in this class. Then I look
forward to sharing what I learn with my students.
References
Bob Pletka, E. (2007). Educating the Net
Gerneration. Santa Monica, California: Santa Monica Press.
Jonassen, D. H. (2006). Modeling
with Technology, Mindtools for Conceptual Change. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs,
Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand
Oaks: Corwin, A Sage Company.
University, W. (n.d.).
RWRCOEL Technology proficiencies. RWRCOEL Technology proficiencies.
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