Midterms have come and gone, and it's time to stoke the blogging fire in the class again. Remember that there are points associated with your blogging. In the past, we've had mandated assignments where students HAD to reflect on what they were learning about educational technologies. This semester I wanted to give you more ownership and freedom by telling you to reflect and blog whenever you wanted, about whatever you wanted, as long you did it.
But many of you aren't doing it! In part because of that, next week there is a required reflection assignment: reflecting on the ethics mini lessons. But you need to do some spontaneous thinking, reflecting, and writing. And short replies to other people's blogs saying, "Yes, I agree with you!" doesn't work! You don't need to blog long, but we want to see that you're thinking, reflecting, and considering different ways technology could be used in your careers.
Blogging is more than just writing about what you think about something. Blogging is synthesis, creation, and regeneration of ideas. You read something on the internet, you quote it, link to it, talk about it, synthesize it into your own context, and rework the idea so that it is now your own. There have been some great examples of this in our class, unfortunately many of them weren't about educational technology but other issues! That's fine too, but let's also talk about class issues.
Here's one example of an excellent blog posted by a student in another section, Lynette Willard.
Using excel in the classroom:
Excel has many uses for teachers as well as students. Teachers can use the program to keep up with grades without using a book or teachers as well as students can mostly use it for organizing data and forming tables, graphs, charts, etc. I found many great websites that gave reasons and examples on how to use it. One website: http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/kadkins/strategy.htm#Kindergarten gave ten reasons on why it should be used. They are:
* integrates real life situations with technology.
* increases communication.
* supports many levels.
* engages students in higher level thinking skills.
* supports the principles and standards for school mathematics
* applies to cross curricular activities.
* is a great management tool.
* compliments and enhances instruction.
* is motivational.
* is just plain fun!
It provided ways to use in several different grade levels. One example for Kindergarten/first grade was making a bar graph and a pie chart showing the number and percentages comparing the pets the children have. Excel can be used to organize data from all subjects including math, science, reading, english, and writing. The teacher can make KWL charts, timelines, multiplication review, and checklists among other things. The students can organize pretty much anything into excel. The students could even use it to make a presentation for the class and show the data they found. This can all be done in the classroom or prepared beforehand to show the students a finished product. Excel allows one to continually add information on so it is great for ongoing experiments that may last for weeks, months, or the entire school year. If for some reason a teacher is not very familiar with the excel program there are websites that show how to use excal and answer questions about it. These websites could be an easy way to show the students how to use the program also. I really loves using excel and find it useful when I have a lot of information but want a neater way to have it in my notes or have a way to organize it and make it easier to read and understand. I will definitely use it in my classroom.
Granted, you don't have to write your posts as long as Lynette's but I loved how she read something on the internet, thought about it, and applied it to her own situation. That's when you're doing quality blogging!
Enough of the soapbox. Hope to hear some of your great ideas soon! This class ebbs and flows as far as homework load, so when we have an off week without a lot of homework, let's get blogging! And go Cougs!
