Thing #1 of the 23 Things Project is - Blogging. :) The assignment is to create a Blogger account (check), create a blog (check,) choose your template (check). Now for the questions, to be answered in post form:
Q1) Why am I participating (from a distance) in the 23 Things Project?
A) See the above statement regarding Web 2.0 and the purpose of this particular blog.
Q2) What interests me about Web 2.0?
A) Teaching, as I know it on from both sides of the desk, is an art that ought to be constantly evolving to meet the needs of the students. Today, this means walking that fine line between entertainment and engagement. It means competing with iPods, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, the Internet in general, TV and radio for students' attention - which, sometimes, can be done by pointing out exactly how Beyonce's new song expresses the theme of the novel we're reading in class, or by making Facebook pages for the characters from the short story unit.
But this kind of creativity and "fun" teaching is so much easier said than done in a culture of standardized tests that requires proof of proper performance to determine who passes and who fails (i.e., who gets funds and who doesn't). When we are so pressed and harassed by that urgent need to make sure as many students as possible understand as much as possible about English literature as quickly as possible, and all in time for the test, who really has time for this Web 2.0 stuff?
And yet. It can be done. I think starting small is the key. Like that Facebook page idea. A poster project. Clear requirements about the information needed. Time to work on it in class and share it with everyone. A billboard or wall devoted to the end results.
Web 2.0 is about connections. And in a time when students are more connected than any other generation of human beings have ever been before, Web 2.0 is the set of tools that fits them and their learning needs. It's up to the teachers to dig in and experiment to find out what is out there that can be put into a student's hands to help her build a bridge to connect ideas.
In conclusion, the tools I am interested in are:
- Classroom wikis that students add information to periodically during class throughout the school year.
- A class blog with updated entries that students must reply to for homework.
- Podcasting or creating a VoiceThread to compile students' reviews of a book, story, or unit, or even a project, while having a little fun.
- Photo or slideshow animation to jazz up those important Powerpoints or Keynotes.
- Google Tools, like using Google Earth to create Google Lit Trips, where students can actually map out significant places on the globe from stories we read in class.
- My Mac software, like iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand, which I would love to use frequently in my future classroom to jazz things up a bit.
I'm so excited about this 23 Things Project because I still feel like I have a long way to go to competently use these tools. Fortunately, in this case, being unemployed is a benefit - I can spend the next several days brushing up on what I do know and adding to my arsenal what I don't know yet. Hooray!
In the words of the indomitable Black Eyed Peas, "Let's get it started. Ha!"
Posts
Ms. Branch,
ReplyDeleteI can attest that classroom wikis would be a novel idea to develop a collaborative project. Whether that be for a small classroom project between a group of students locally or with grand project between students in other schools. That's the collaborative beauty of a wiki, that it shares the same language (code) and is easy to do and develop. I can attest because that's what I do at work now. One of the criticisms of our (government) office was that we didn't share information very well, so what better way than to share it via the means that everybody knows how to use, a wiki!
Also, your students would be better for it to have developed a skill that is so highly marketable at such a young age; in fact, we're looking to hire somebody with web programming skills right now!
-jlee