Greetings all! This is my first real venture in to the Blogosphere and I have to say I’m extremely excited. To be sure, this has been a long time coming. On a personal level, I have always wanted a creative writing outlet that matched my style. On a professional level, I have always wanted tools that would engage students and allow them to be more active participants in the writing process. I have also sought effective ways to document what I have done in the classroom (especially pertaining to student work) without accumulating GIGANTIC files of paperwork. Blogging may meet all of these needs.
This blogventure (is it o.k. to create words here? it seems so) is also timely because my colleagues and I are in the first year of creating/implementing a Digital Media Studies program/curriculum at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. The process actually began at the beginning of the last school year largely because of reform strategies in our district, and because of the desire to attract more students to our school. This will be a topic I will cover in a later blog. But, for documentation sake, this blog will serve as an excellent resource. I will also be able to receive input (comments) from my colleagues and classmates that will only enhance the inevitable discussions that will arise.
It amazes me how Web 2.0 tools, and various digital writing techniques make things so “real time”. They should enhance our program because I will be able to step out of a class I am observing and blog about, for example, the challenge of technological access, and how a firewall can suddenly lead to an increase in the number of behavioral referrals for profanity, and this before the students arrive!
Some of the main topics that are of interest to me and that I want to learn more about are:
1) From the NCTE standards: Students should be able to manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information.
This seems to be MUCH easier for students than for teachers (I have difficulty listening to a lecture, chatting, and brainstorming discussion topics) How do we ensure that students are getting the content?
2) The essential relinquishing of control by the teacher to use these techniques is a topic of unlimited discussion. The shift from author à readers to collaborative sharing of knowledge between author ó readers, Kress (2007) mirrors the paradigm shift necessary for the new teacher/student relationship formed by implementing Web 2.0 techniques. They are NOT just vessels to be filled with our knowledge.
3) The first “challenge” acknowledged in chapter 1 of Beach, Anson, Breuch and Swiss’ Teaching Writing Using Blogs, Wikis, and Other Digital Tools is Technological Access and Use. How true! The aforementioned relinquishing of control is not only required of teachers, but administrators, IT people, etc., all the way to the top of the district. Our IT people have been extremely supportive, but some issues naturally exist. Subtopics: low income schools and families, lab usage, blocking, first amendment rights, appropriate usage, and so much more
Signing off for now.
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1 comment:
You bring up an intriguing point in regards to using digital tools and empowering students to make decisions and promote their own ideas.
Getting the content to the students is a challenging and complex situation. It goes to the thought of teaching a mile wide and an inch thick or a mile thick and an inch wide. As a young teacher, I sometimes taught subject matter an inch thick since I was concerned about getting through all the content. However, over the years, I feel more comfortable with prioritizing certain content and realizing that teaching core concepts with depth is more important to the students for them to apply to concepts to real-world situations and retain the content for the long term.
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