Today’s students are unlike any students from the past. I used to think I understood how they learned because I went through a similar generation experience. What I have learned over the past several years is that even my current freshmen students learn drastically different than the seniors I taught four short years ago. The following quote really brings this idea to the forefront.
"If students are to achieve their full potential, they must have opportunities to engage and develop a much richer set of skills... While there is still a need for more empirical evidence that these factors can be taught as transferable competencies across situations, there are a wide range of promising program and approaches" (Schechtman, DeBarger, Dornsife, Rosier, & Yarnell, 2013 as cited in Solomon & Schrum, 2014, p. 8).
This quote is the definition of a modern learner to me. Students need to be able to engage beyond a textbook or taking notes off a PowerPoint from a dull, monotonous teacher, yet many students are still forced to learn this way! An engaged student will learn much more in a classroom and remember what they learned too. Web 2.0 tools can be the solution to promoting better student engagement, but teachers need professional development opportunities to learn best-practice strategies and understand the appropriate way to implement these tools (Solomon & Schrum, 2014). I see teachers every day that attempt to use a tool, but many times the students are not receiving the maximum benefits because the teacher has not been given the opportunity to truly explore the resources and learn how to use web 2.0 tools in a way that best benefits his or her individual classroom.
Using web 2.0 tools helps all types of learners succeed in the classroom. Since I began flipping my classroom two years ago I have noticed much more retention of material from all of my students whether, they are special education students, non-native English speaking students, or even just my general education students. They are able to watch the content videos as many times as they like and even pause, rewind, and replay videos to ensure they have caught all the material. In this manner, all types of learners have an equal opportunity to be successful in the classroom.
The largest movement I see happening with Web 2.0 is the use of social networking to benefit classroom learning. Twitter has become a great resource for educators and many students are on Twitter already. A recent post that came across my Twitter feed was an article by Edudemic that gave innovative new ways to try Twitter in the classroom. An alarming statistic in the article stated that over 80% of teachers have a social media account, yet very few actually integrate social media into the classroom (DeLoatch, 2015). Many of the ideas listed in this article are great ideas for classroom implementation. I especially like the idea of posting a question and having students tweet the answer, documenting field trips (or in my case even dissections) through Twitter, have students tweet out current events related to classroom topics, the list of potential topics is endless!
In addition, I cannot wait to explore more web 2.0 tools that I can use in my classroom. I love the idea of blogging and think it is a great way for today’s generation of learners to communicate effectively. I think blogging can also help students of all levels become better writers. I already use Google Drive with my students so I would like to be able to incorporate Blogger into their classroom activities and assignments. I also think Glogster could do wonders for many of the online poster projects I already assign. I have my students make “posters” on Google Drive but I am the only one that ever sees what great posters they have made. Glogster seems like a great method of expanding these assignments to be more exciting and engaging for the students. I was even more intrigued by this method of sharing student work after reading in Solomon and Schrum (2014) about how a forensics teacher uses Glogster to make interactive posters about arson evidence.
After doing some research, I found some other great ideas for Glogster use in my specific classroom. Barker (2013) gives 40 great ways to implement Glogster in the classroom. I especially love the ideas of using Glogster to keep a classroom website, post information for science labs to share data and results, post a virtual lab, or even to complement my already flipped classroom structure. Despite my new fascination with Glogster, I also want to help my students increase their literacy skills overall and I think Edublogs will be a great way to do this (Solomon & Schrum, 2014, p. 27). I like the idea of students reflecting throughout the course and many students are much better at expressing themselves in a written manner than orally in class. There are so many controversial topics we discuss in science and by encouraging student blogging, I will have much greater insight into the thoughts of my students. This allows students to not only be aware of the world around them through current event research but also builds a connection between course content and the outside world.
With the implementation of blogs, evaluation of student blogs also becomes a key component of the process. Teachers need to be involved in the process and student feedback needs to be meaningful and done quickly (Waters, 2013). The importance of teaching students about quality feedback before launching the use of classroom blogs is also important. Students need to know the expectations and be held to these standards from the beginning to ensure meaningful work is the outcome. Waters (2013) also recommends monitoring student work throughout the process to keep students on the right track and progressing forward to become better bloggers through her article on student blogging.
To implement blogging in my classroom, I will likely take the approach mentioned above that has students blog about current event news articles and how these correlate to topics discussed in class. To evaluate these blogs, I would need to look at three major criteria: student blog post, current event article, and student comments and replies. To determine the best approach to create a potential rubric, I found a great website from the University of Wisconsin Stout. Franker (2010) uses excellent verbiage to describe what exemplary rubric posts should contain. The rubric uses phrases such as, “comprehensive insight, reflective thought, a cohesive viewpoint, and written in a style appealing and appropriate to the audience” to describe what an exemplary post should contain. Poore (2016) also gives great ideas for what types of things to assess in a blog post. She recommends three major categories: content, posts, and design. She also has subcategories within each of these for creating a potential rubric. After exploring these resources, I have decided on the following blogging rubric posted below.
Barker, J. (2013, May 13). 40+ ways to innovative teaching using Glogster EDU [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blog.edu.glogster.com/2013/05/13/40_ways_to_innovative_teaching_using_glogster_edu/
Franker, K. (2010). A rubric for evaluating student blogs. Retrieved from University of Wisconsin Stout website: https://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/blogrubric.html
Poore, M. (2016) 5. Assessing student blogs [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blogagogy.wordpress.com/assessing-blogs/
Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2014). Web 2.0: How to for educators. Eugene, OR: ISTE
Waters, S. (2013, February 11). Getting more out of student blogging [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://suewaters.com/2013/02/11/getting-more-out-of-student-blogging/
"If students are to achieve their full potential, they must have opportunities to engage and develop a much richer set of skills... While there is still a need for more empirical evidence that these factors can be taught as transferable competencies across situations, there are a wide range of promising program and approaches" (Schechtman, DeBarger, Dornsife, Rosier, & Yarnell, 2013 as cited in Solomon & Schrum, 2014, p. 8).
This quote is the definition of a modern learner to me. Students need to be able to engage beyond a textbook or taking notes off a PowerPoint from a dull, monotonous teacher, yet many students are still forced to learn this way! An engaged student will learn much more in a classroom and remember what they learned too. Web 2.0 tools can be the solution to promoting better student engagement, but teachers need professional development opportunities to learn best-practice strategies and understand the appropriate way to implement these tools (Solomon & Schrum, 2014). I see teachers every day that attempt to use a tool, but many times the students are not receiving the maximum benefits because the teacher has not been given the opportunity to truly explore the resources and learn how to use web 2.0 tools in a way that best benefits his or her individual classroom.
Using web 2.0 tools helps all types of learners succeed in the classroom. Since I began flipping my classroom two years ago I have noticed much more retention of material from all of my students whether, they are special education students, non-native English speaking students, or even just my general education students. They are able to watch the content videos as many times as they like and even pause, rewind, and replay videos to ensure they have caught all the material. In this manner, all types of learners have an equal opportunity to be successful in the classroom.
The largest movement I see happening with Web 2.0 is the use of social networking to benefit classroom learning. Twitter has become a great resource for educators and many students are on Twitter already. A recent post that came across my Twitter feed was an article by Edudemic that gave innovative new ways to try Twitter in the classroom. An alarming statistic in the article stated that over 80% of teachers have a social media account, yet very few actually integrate social media into the classroom (DeLoatch, 2015). Many of the ideas listed in this article are great ideas for classroom implementation. I especially like the idea of posting a question and having students tweet the answer, documenting field trips (or in my case even dissections) through Twitter, have students tweet out current events related to classroom topics, the list of potential topics is endless!
In addition, I cannot wait to explore more web 2.0 tools that I can use in my classroom. I love the idea of blogging and think it is a great way for today’s generation of learners to communicate effectively. I think blogging can also help students of all levels become better writers. I already use Google Drive with my students so I would like to be able to incorporate Blogger into their classroom activities and assignments. I also think Glogster could do wonders for many of the online poster projects I already assign. I have my students make “posters” on Google Drive but I am the only one that ever sees what great posters they have made. Glogster seems like a great method of expanding these assignments to be more exciting and engaging for the students. I was even more intrigued by this method of sharing student work after reading in Solomon and Schrum (2014) about how a forensics teacher uses Glogster to make interactive posters about arson evidence.
After doing some research, I found some other great ideas for Glogster use in my specific classroom. Barker (2013) gives 40 great ways to implement Glogster in the classroom. I especially love the ideas of using Glogster to keep a classroom website, post information for science labs to share data and results, post a virtual lab, or even to complement my already flipped classroom structure. Despite my new fascination with Glogster, I also want to help my students increase their literacy skills overall and I think Edublogs will be a great way to do this (Solomon & Schrum, 2014, p. 27). I like the idea of students reflecting throughout the course and many students are much better at expressing themselves in a written manner than orally in class. There are so many controversial topics we discuss in science and by encouraging student blogging, I will have much greater insight into the thoughts of my students. This allows students to not only be aware of the world around them through current event research but also builds a connection between course content and the outside world.
With the implementation of blogs, evaluation of student blogs also becomes a key component of the process. Teachers need to be involved in the process and student feedback needs to be meaningful and done quickly (Waters, 2013). The importance of teaching students about quality feedback before launching the use of classroom blogs is also important. Students need to know the expectations and be held to these standards from the beginning to ensure meaningful work is the outcome. Waters (2013) also recommends monitoring student work throughout the process to keep students on the right track and progressing forward to become better bloggers through her article on student blogging.
To implement blogging in my classroom, I will likely take the approach mentioned above that has students blog about current event news articles and how these correlate to topics discussed in class. To evaluate these blogs, I would need to look at three major criteria: student blog post, current event article, and student comments and replies. To determine the best approach to create a potential rubric, I found a great website from the University of Wisconsin Stout. Franker (2010) uses excellent verbiage to describe what exemplary rubric posts should contain. The rubric uses phrases such as, “comprehensive insight, reflective thought, a cohesive viewpoint, and written in a style appealing and appropriate to the audience” to describe what an exemplary post should contain. Poore (2016) also gives great ideas for what types of things to assess in a blog post. She recommends three major categories: content, posts, and design. She also has subcategories within each of these for creating a potential rubric. After exploring these resources, I have decided on the following blogging rubric posted below.
Barker, J. (2013, May 13). 40+ ways to innovative teaching using Glogster EDU [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blog.edu.glogster.com/2013/05/13/40_ways_to_innovative_teaching_using_glogster_edu/
Franker, K. (2010). A rubric for evaluating student blogs. Retrieved from University of Wisconsin Stout website: https://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/blogrubric.html
Poore, M. (2016) 5. Assessing student blogs [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blogagogy.wordpress.com/assessing-blogs/
Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2014). Web 2.0: How to for educators. Eugene, OR: ISTE
Waters, S. (2013, February 11). Getting more out of student blogging [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://suewaters.com/2013/02/11/getting-more-out-of-student-blogging/