Weblogs, considered something between a journal and a multigenre project, allow writers to publish their thoughts online simply by entering text. They allow writers to publish reflective posts to a responsive audience. Weblogs can be created, changed, and updated very easily. A website is considered a blog if it has a chronological ordering of posts, dated and archived posts, a function that allows for comments to be posted to an entry, and a menu or indexing feature. A couple blogging websites are www.blogger.com and edublogs.org.
Class blogs are a way to “post links and ideas, introduce new concepts, and provide students with a forum for discussion about the class” (Kajder, 2007, p. 216). Teachers can assign a student daily to post what happened in class on the class blog. The scribe’s post will relate to topics that have already been covered in class and topics that are going to be covered next. Students can use the blog to ask questions, share helpful information, and to post ideas and opinions they have about a class discussion. Blogs can be in the form of words, images, and videos. This gives students several options of how they can portray their message (i.e. students who struggle with writing can use images). Class blogs can be used for students to collaborate with expert writers, readers, museum curators, filmmakers, and screenwriters as well as other classrooms that are working on similar projects. Class blogs can also be used for peer editing and online mentoring.
Class blogs allow students to write to a responsive audience. Kajder says in her article that “writers who have real audiences listening and responding to their writing learn firsthand how writing is a communicative act; they learn to take responsibility for their words, to defend and modify them based on reactions from the real people sitting around them” (2007, p. 219). Since students have begun writing to a responsive audience, teachers have noticed that class discussions are no longer about format, page requirements, and font size but about how students really portray things.
Kajder, S. B. (2007). Unleashing Potential with Emerging Technologies. Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice, 213-229.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Book Trailers
Similar to a movie trailer, a book trailer promotes a glimpse into a book through a movie-like preview, teasing the student into reading the book. Book trailers are a two to three minute digital video in which students are challenged to combine still images, motion, soundtrack and print text in communicating ideas, discoveries and insights about a text. They are circulated on television and online in most common digital video formats. Book trailers mainly appeal to Internet users and the majority of them focus on the book's cover art, with taglines and book snippets placed over images depicting the book's characters and plotline. Most book trailers also include background music, and some even insert voiceovers. The first book trailer to be played publicly was at a book convention in Shreveport, LA. in 2003. The trailer was for a book entitled Dark Symphony by author Christine Feehan. Book Trailers can be acted out, full production trailers, flash videos, animation or simple still photos set to music with text conveying the story. Sites such as MySpace, YouTube and iFilm allowed for these trailers to be viewed by the public. Book trailers are important for students because they motivate students to to select, read and complete a book.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Writing a Wikibook
Wikibooks are valuable resource to teachers. Students are often hesitant about reading new novels. By incorporating wikibooks into the classrooms, the students don't just read the book, but they analyze it through explanatory notes, introductions, summaries, questions and answers, charts, lists, indices, references, wikilinks, pictures, and audio. Wikibooks are made available to everyone so students often enjoy getting feedback from others besides just their teachers and classmates. They also like to further enhance their wikibooks with video clips, podcasting of literature discussions, and anything else that they can find to add to the wikibook. One student stated, "Here, writing allows us to put it all down...so we can return and rethink it." By using this kind of technology in conjunction with literature, it helps students to fully explore the text beyond just reading the assigned chapters.
Podcasting
It has been found that many students are reading in school and for school assignments but not independently. Kajder suggests that in order for students to develop an interest in reading they must be given opportunities to engage with books and literature. Podcasts provide students with this very opportunity. Through podcasting students are given an opportunity for authentic learning and engagement. Podcasts that are posted on classroom websites can be viewed by anyone that has access to the website.
Podcasts are beneficial to both student and teacher. It is often difficult for a teacher to be in every literary discussion at all times. The creation of a podcast allows the teacher to hear all that students have to say about the piece and all the questions that the students may have. The information that can be gleaned from a podcast can influence further literary instruction. Podcasting encourages students to evaluate their own and their peers’ work. Additionally, students are provided with the challenge of “editing recorded texts, selecting what will be included in a finished product, splicing content so that it clearly conveys intended meaning, and polishing presentation by framing the podcast with introductory and closing content” (2007, p. 221). If podcasts are implemented appropriately into a classroom they can provide many benefits to student learning and literary engagement.
Kajder states that there are three ideas to consider when incorporating podcasting into classroom instruction. First, the “students are creating a literacy artifact” and due the electronic medium of podcasting students are easily able to edit and modify their artifact (Kajder, 2007, p. 222). Second, podcasting and other activities like it provide teachers with a window into their students learning (Kajder, 2007). Last, like portfolios, podcasting encourages students to “explore and evaluate their progress across tasks in a course” (Kajder, 2007, p. 222). In addition to these three points there is one more thing to consider before implementing podcasting into your classroom. While there are many benefits to podcasting, to fully utilize those benefits teachers and students must have access and understanding in the use of a computer with a microphone, a device to do the recording, an audio editing program and a website. When podcasting is correctly implemented into literary activities there is the possibility for increased student engagement and increased student learning.
Kajder, S. B. (2007). Unleashing potential with emerging technologies. Adolescent Literacy, 213-229.
Podcasts are beneficial to both student and teacher. It is often difficult for a teacher to be in every literary discussion at all times. The creation of a podcast allows the teacher to hear all that students have to say about the piece and all the questions that the students may have. The information that can be gleaned from a podcast can influence further literary instruction. Podcasting encourages students to evaluate their own and their peers’ work. Additionally, students are provided with the challenge of “editing recorded texts, selecting what will be included in a finished product, splicing content so that it clearly conveys intended meaning, and polishing presentation by framing the podcast with introductory and closing content” (2007, p. 221). If podcasts are implemented appropriately into a classroom they can provide many benefits to student learning and literary engagement.
Kajder states that there are three ideas to consider when incorporating podcasting into classroom instruction. First, the “students are creating a literacy artifact” and due the electronic medium of podcasting students are easily able to edit and modify their artifact (Kajder, 2007, p. 222). Second, podcasting and other activities like it provide teachers with a window into their students learning (Kajder, 2007). Last, like portfolios, podcasting encourages students to “explore and evaluate their progress across tasks in a course” (Kajder, 2007, p. 222). In addition to these three points there is one more thing to consider before implementing podcasting into your classroom. While there are many benefits to podcasting, to fully utilize those benefits teachers and students must have access and understanding in the use of a computer with a microphone, a device to do the recording, an audio editing program and a website. When podcasting is correctly implemented into literary activities there is the possibility for increased student engagement and increased student learning.
Kajder, S. B. (2007). Unleashing potential with emerging technologies. Adolescent Literacy, 213-229.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Welcome to our blog!
We have learned throughout the course of the semester that it is imperative for teachers to keep up with technology and use it creatively in the classroom. Also important is determining what interests students and keeps them engaged throughout a lesson. It is widely known that when students are bored with school, they tend to get lazy, fail to do the required work, and in later years, even drop out of school altogether.
In her article, "Unleashing Potential with Emerging Techologies," Kajder finds that the technology students use outside of school is not well-utilized in school. More and more, students are choosing to express themselves in front of a large, online audience rather than in personal, hand-written journals. On the other hand, teachers oftentimes tend to resort to teaching methods that are familiar and comfortable to them. They may not know how to utilize different technology tools, prefering to use styles that they think have always worked in the past. This has created a gap between students and teachers but can be lessened by teachers who know how to effectively use emerging technologies that students are familiar with and excited about.
Kajder attempts to connect teachers and students during writing lessons and describes examples of how each technology tool is implemented in the classroom. As she states, "in all our attempts to move forward, we haven't looked to our kids to see what the possibilities are for merging what they know about technology with what we know about what it means to read and write well."
Not only will using technology interest students in the present, but using it often will better prepare them for the next grade levels as well as later on when they enter the workforce. For now, let's take a further look at what technologies we can implement in the classroom...
In her article, "Unleashing Potential with Emerging Techologies," Kajder finds that the technology students use outside of school is not well-utilized in school. More and more, students are choosing to express themselves in front of a large, online audience rather than in personal, hand-written journals. On the other hand, teachers oftentimes tend to resort to teaching methods that are familiar and comfortable to them. They may not know how to utilize different technology tools, prefering to use styles that they think have always worked in the past. This has created a gap between students and teachers but can be lessened by teachers who know how to effectively use emerging technologies that students are familiar with and excited about.
Kajder attempts to connect teachers and students during writing lessons and describes examples of how each technology tool is implemented in the classroom. As she states, "in all our attempts to move forward, we haven't looked to our kids to see what the possibilities are for merging what they know about technology with what we know about what it means to read and write well."
Not only will using technology interest students in the present, but using it often will better prepare them for the next grade levels as well as later on when they enter the workforce. For now, let's take a further look at what technologies we can implement in the classroom...
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