Digital Blog #F

Energizing Student Writing has never been easier! In chapter 8 of our textbook, we see that students have not forfeited writing altogether (as some people might believe), but rather their writing has undergone an evolution. Writing has become another animal, because in the age of technology, it could not possibly have stayed the same and survived. Human beings write text messages daily and because of this, they have created an entirely new language. This is completely contradictory to the idea that writing is dead. Students have begun using sites like Blogger ,in favor of the spiral notebooks of my generation, in order to record their opinions and ideas.

It is the responsibility of teachers to encourage this evolution of writing and to evolve their teaching styles and lesson plans to match the needs of their pupils. Instead of complaining that students don't know how to write or that they don't write, teachers need to recognize that writing is happening in a whole new and exciting way!

Below, you will find a section of my assignment done on emaze. Instead of turning this in on poster board (as I would have done in my middle school career), I have the ability to create a mock newspaper online and share it with you here.


I am very excited to see what my future students will be able to create and convey to me when given the option to use tools that are comfortable, fun, and familiar to them much in the same way that calligraphy pens and magic markers were to me as a student.


Next, let's discuss Websites and Blogs for Teachers and Students. When I read the syllabus for this class and realized that I would be required to create and maintain a blog, I experienced some serious anxiety. I had never created a blog before. The concept was completely new and foreign to me. Sure, I had written tons of papers, essays, poems, and even short books in my time. I had even written online articles. The source of anxiety stemmed solely from the word "Blog" and only because it was a word I was not familiar with. I thought it would be too complicated. I instantly thought I would fail. (I believe that this anxiety is similar to what most students feel when a teacher announces that they have to write a lengthy assignment. The student is not familiar with writing things out longhand. They may have done numerous assignments online, but never with a pen and paper. It is unfamiliar territory, and they are afraid to fail).  Now that I have some practice with blogging, I am certain to use it in my career as an educator. Not only do I not have dozens of ink marks all over my hands when I am finished working, but I have the ability to add images and videos and all sorts of learning enhancers where written work would have fallen short.
I also have the ability to look back on my early blog posts and see what areas I have grown in and what areas I should polish. I think that asking a student to keep a blog, particularly because I intend to be a Language Arts teacher, is a wonderful idea. The student will have a record of everything they have worked on without fear of losing older pieces in the bottom of their backpacks or in a messy room. They will be able to received comments from me instantly as well as communicate questions and opinions right away with no fear of forgetting what they needed to say before they step into my classroom next.
For me personally, keeping a blog active is a great way to have an "open door" policy for the parents of my students. Busy parents can access the blog any time of the day or night and because it is vital for parents to be involved with their child's education, this is a wonderful resource!

My thoughts on Wikis as a Collaborative Learning Strategy...  Much like how I felt when I found out our class was going to use and maintain a blog, the collaborative Wiki assignment sent chills up my spine. I have never before created a Wiki page or a Wiki space, or done anything with Wiki aside from read some pages created by others. Reading the Wiki section of the text book, I see that there is much more to Wiki than I knew. I was not aware of the WikiTravel, WikiHow, WikiIndex, or Curriki. I am thrilled to see that there is so much more information available for teachers and for students than I ever realized before! Our collaborative wiki project was slow-moving, but not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I think that using Wiki as a place to have students collaborate on projects is a wonderful resource. It was user friendly and there is an option for educators to see who put in work and when they put it in. This will help students to feel relief in knowing that they will be credited for the work they do instead of being penalized for those times when group members do not help enough. I believe that most of my disdain for group projects came from the idea that I was going to receive a lower grade than I deserved if I did not go ahead and fill in all the missing pieces of an assignment that a team member failed to do. With Wiki as a collaborative learning tool, students can be assured that they only need to do their share and will not suffer for the mistakes of others. Another thing I learned when reading the textbook is that Wiki projects can be stand alone, or they can be built upon over time. It had never really occurred to me that, like a blog, a student could continue to add to and improve on their Wiki project over the course of a school year (or longer). I am always in favor of tools that help teachers and students track progress and show a clear comparison of "then and now". How else do we learn if we cannot see where we are and are not developing?


Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Category:Creative Commons - Wikimedia Commons. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2015. 

"Flickr: Creative Commons." Web. 11 Oct. 2015.

"Find Creative Commons Images in Google Image Search." Web. 11 Oct. 2015