The Intersection

Reflections

lisahuff — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 03:26:58 +0000

Taking the time to reflect on the day’s activities and learning is a valuable practice that often allows us to make sense of the multitude of new information swirling in our heads. Take a deep breath, and take a moment to respond to the three prompts below by clicking the Comments button.

3 Things I’ve Learned in this Session…
2 Things I’m Unsure Of…
1 Thing I Can Do Immediately…

Model Blogging Lesson

lisahuff — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:00:53 +0000

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Blogging 101 WebQuest: Intro

lisahuff — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:55:49 +0000

View WebQuest on ONE PAGE

A recent report from Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals interesting trends in teen use of social media:

Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004.
…content creation is not just about sharing creative output; it is also about participating in conversations fueled by that content.

Clarence Fisher, noted edublogger, says this of blogs:

Blogs= Invitations Into Lives.
This is exactly one reason why I want my kids to blog; and just as importantly, to read the blogs of others. Blogs are doors to the rest of the world.

What if educators could tap teens’ growing interests in using technology to start and sustain CONVERSATIONS?

What if blogging could OPEN THE WORLD to our students?

Citations & Sources

Go to Task

Blogging 101 WebQuest: Task

lisahuff — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:55:07 +0000

To understand what blogging is and how you might use blogging with your students, you need to develop an understanding of good blogging practices and a knowledge of what possibilities are open to you and your students. One route to this understanding is to analyze blogs—to see what bloggers do and to explore how other educators are using blogs in their classrooms. That’s your task in this lesson.

By the end of this lesson, you and your group will answer these questions:

Which two of the example blogs listed below are the best ones? Why?
Which two are the worst? Why?
What do best and worst mean to you?

Citations and Sources

Go to Process

Blogging 101 WebQuest: Process

lisahuff — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:54:31 +0000

STEP 2

First, locate or print a hard copy of the worksheet. To answer the questions given above, you’ll break into groups of four. Within the group, each of you will take on one of the following roles:

The Efficiency Expert: You value time a great deal. You believe that too much time is wasted in today’s classrooms on unfocused activity and learners not knowing what they should be doing at a given moment. To you, the best blogging practices must deliver the most learning bang for the buck. If it’s a short, unambitious blogging activity that teaches a small thing well, then you like it. If it’s a long-term blogging activity, it had better deliver a deep understanding of the topic it covers in your view.

The Affiliator: To you, the best learning activities are those in which students learn to work together. Blogging that forces collaboration and creates a need for discussion and consensus are the best in your view. If blogging could be done by a student working alone—with no interaction with others–it leaves you cold.

The Altitudinist: Higher level thinking is everything to you. There’s too much emphasis on factual recall in schools today. The only justification for blogging is if it opens up the possibility that students will have to analyze information, synthesize multiple perspectives, and take a stance on the merits of something. You also value blogs that allow for some creative expression on the part of the learner.

The Technophile: You love this internet thang. To you, the best blogs make the best use of the technology of the Web. If a blog has attractive colors, embedded photos and videos, and lots of links to interesting sites, you love it. If it makes minimal use of the Web, you’d rather use a worksheet.

STEP 2

After agreeing upon an assigned role, choose three blogs–in addition to the three on the worksheet–to evaluate.

Citations and Sources

Go to Evaluation & Reflection

Blogging 101 WebQuest: Evaluation

lisahuff — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:53:57 +0000

Citations and Sources

View WebQuest on One Page

Blogging 101 WebQuest: Credits

lisahuff — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:52:54 +0000

In creating this WebQuest, I borrowed liberally from the work of others, namely from two other WebQuests:

From Bernie Dodge’s A WebQuest About WebQuests, I borrowed the concept of having participants assume four roles. I have only slightly modified Dodge’s four roles.
From

Blogging 101: Introductions

lisahuff — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 04:20:19 +0000

Welcome to Blogging 101–a workshop (workshop wiki) designed to help educators successfully integrate blogging into their curricula. Blogs are a great tool for educators to communicate with students and parents and to excite students about learning. Not only does blogging teach students technology skills outlined by NETS for Students but it also encourages students to read, write, think, collaborate, create, design, publish.

Let’s begin by introducing ourselves to one another. Using the comments feature, post a brief introduction so we can all get to know one another. Use first names only, and tell us where you teach, what you teach, and what you’re most excited about learning in this workshop.

Commenting is easy. Scroll to the bottom of page–at the end of the post. Below the Post a Comment on this entry, you’ll see boxes to type in your name, e-mail address, and website. Type your first name only in the first box, your e-mail address in the second box, and leave the third box blank (unless you have a URL to your website you’d like to include). Type in the anti-spam word in the box. Then you can type your introduction in the big box. When you’re finished, click Submit Comment below the big text box.