International Blogging?

I am beginning a new social studies unit next week and the focus of it is geography. I started thinking about different ways that I can engage students in a topic that is otherwise very dry.

One of the thoughts I had (for future years, as it will take quite a bit of planning) is to team up with students in a different part of the world for a collaborative learning experience. Students can use the Internet to communicate with one another, sharing photographs of local landforms and discussing local traditions and culture. While researching the implications and directions of such a project, I came across a very informative article written by Aaron Fowles (n.d.) for the University of North Carolina School of Education on the topic of international classroom collaboration. (see article here)

Fowles (n.d.) recommends using a variety of tools for the collaborative process (text, video, email, message boards, etc.) and bringing all of these tools to the same place, such as a blog or a wiki. This way, students not only have a workspace, but also a format for socializing with one another.

He also advises having a strict timeline in place before beginning a project. There are many pitfalls that students on either end may encounter, so it is important to be flexible but also to have the content goals always in mind.

Other web resources:

• ePALS Classroom exchange  and  KidLink are resources for teachers to use to find partner schools and/or existing collaborative projects to join.  
• The US Department of Education has a webpage dedicated to international collaboration on the Internet. This page provides additional advice and resources for teachers to get started. 

Reference:
Fowles, A. (n.d.). International classroom collaboration on the worldwide web. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6910

The reality of 3rd grade blogging....

Last week was the official launch of our classroom blog. My partner teacher and I decided to use the tool Kidblog (found here) in our third grade class and it has not been without its challenges.

We originally decided to create a blog as a way of assessing student work, promoting collaboration between students and as keyboarding practice for the upcoming PARCC exam (which is being offered completely online). In our class readings by Richardson (2006), the author lists many other "pros" of using blogs as a collaboration tool:

• They promote critical and analytical thinking
• They promote creative and intuitive thinking 
• They help to combine personal reflection with social interactions
• They provide a medium for increasing exposure to information

However, we did not fully anticipate all the challenges that we would face when introducing the weblog to the classroom.

The first challenge we faced was that our students were far less "tech-savvy" than anticipated. We spent a considerable amount of time instructing (and repeating directions for) how to access the website and log on. Once the students successfully found the space, they immediately wandered off and could not find their way back to the home page to complete the activity. When found, they proceeded to create their blog entries using "text talk" and not complete (or coherent) sentences.

What have I learned from this?

Our blog project will be an ongoing process that may not yield any real usable data in the near future.

I also learned that I need to plan for several mini lessons before we attempt to use the blog for collaboration. Richardson (2006) heavily stresses the need for online safety education, especially at the younger grades. I plan on conducting a lesson next week that is geared toward the dangers of being online and how students can protect themselves.

I also need to have mini lesson where we discuss appropriate forms of language for communication at school (both when writing the blog and when responding to it in a thoughtful manner).

Some of the resources that I have found helpful as I plan these mini lessons are:

StopBullying.Gov - this is a government website that provides information for students and parents about bullying, including cyber-bullying. There are fun videos that model how to respond in a bullying situation
StopBullying.gov


ReadWriteThink - a resource for teachers on how to use the blog in the classroom at every level and how it can be introduced to students ReadWriteThink

abcya.com - online games for students grades K-5. In addition to ELA and math games, this website has several varieties of keyboarding games that students can use to improve typing skills. abcya.com

Here We Go!

This is officially my first experience as a blogger! 

I have always been interested in blogs - at least since blogs became a thing. I enjoy reading humorous posts about everyday experiences and learning new tricks to improve my life. As a teacher, I rely on blogs as a source of "best practices" and fresh ideas. But, I can't say I've ever desired to author one. 

This year, my third graders will be creating their own blog with the help of my partner (the reading teacher). Students will be using Kidblog to post individual journal responses and collaborate with one another on various topics. I'm excited to see the direction this goes once it is fully running. If nothing more, they will get some typing practice in before the dreaded PARCC exam! 

As for creating my very first blog today, it's been going pretty well. I'm about to attempt to link my group members using RSS feeds or something, so that should be fun... (I'm pretty intimidated!!!). Keep your fingers crossed that I figure that out!