Blogging toward Literacy; Promoting Reading and Writing in English Classes July 10, 2006
Posted by Debbie Stafford in : NECC2006 , 1 comment so farPresented by Pamela Raytick and Karen Connaghan
Blogging was all over NECC this year. I saw one blog session, Blogging for Beginners being held in in a very large room with people standing just outside listening in because the room was full. Blogging was definitely a hot topic.
I wanted to get to a blog session this year, as I had listened in on David Warwick’s session last year but wanted on about how students would use blogs, and so selected this one since the focus was to be on using blogging to promote reading.
These two ladies prepared and implemented an action research project on the topic of blogs used for promoting reading and writing. In addition to covering blogging, it was a good example of an action research project. The project was begun with limited students in small group, later expanding to more students. They hoped to;
Cultivate Literacy
Focusing on more than skills
Encouraging connections
Making the READER matter
Community
Social and collaborative
Ownership
Students teach themselves (latent Curriculum)
Technology
Virtual community
Conversations with no boundaries
New Mechanism
The possibility that parents and other teachers were uncomfortable with this technology was discussed as a possibility.
In the summary, for others who might want to do a similar project, four areas were addressed; Security issues, Sanity issues (editing, time, comments, unexpected) issues of access outside of class and Time (frequency, workload etc)
Tag: NECC2006
More NECC2006
Posted by Laura Pearle in : NECC2006 , add a commentFor additional information about NECC2006:
The Official NECC2006 program (with session handouts)
Introducing the Read Write Web July 9, 2006
Posted by Debbie Stafford in : NECC2006 , 1 comment so farIntroducing the Read Write Web presented by Tim Wilson
This was a very good workshop, especially for anyone not sure what Web2.0 or Read/ Write Web means. The presenter, Tim Wilson has a blog at http://technosavvy.org/. Check out the post for Introducing the Read Write Web: Tim has an audio version of the presentation available along with a list of the links. I would recommend taking a listen.
But if you don’t have time, here is my summary;
Compare a personal web page to a Weblog. The personal web page is read only, where as the weblog is a total read/write page, viewers can not only read but write and give back comments. The read/write web opens users to all kinds of new abilities all of which deal with the development of information, community and conversations.
However, as in all things there are also challenges. Tim not only listed the challenges but gave suggestions for dealing with these challenges.
Safety – keep the applications where you can “pull the plug” if necessary, monitor, implement a curriculum and remember that students will “encounter weirdos not just online.
Professional development – made training not “just in case” - “feed the rabbits” and leadership is essential.
Assessment – use information literacy standards, create rubrics across unites, de emphasize individual assessments, emphasize self assessment.
Equitable access – establish a baseline for equipment, extend hours of labs and libraries, have equity conversations.
Tag: NECC2006
This and That
Posted by Debbie Stafford in : NECC2006 , add a commentThese were all seen/heard at NECC but don’t lend themselves to a full blog post.
Keynote DeWitt Jones from National Geographic. The talk was inspiring and the photographs were beautiful. But I will try to incorporate his four main ideas; Vision, Creativity, Passion and Purpose.
PBS site on media literacy
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/media_lit/related_sites.shtm
SIGMS (special interest group, media specialists) met and discusses ways to make librarians more visible at NECC, perhaps with some sort of award program.
LM_NET “Birds of a Feather” several long time members spoke about how much LM_NET has meant to librarians. There was some discussion about how to create a focused database of information useful for librarians facing cutbacks or other issues. A possible Wiki was discussed.
Virtual Field Trips presented by Beth Caraccio
The first part of this session was a presentation about the why of virtual field trips and different types of field trips.
Advantages,
Learning styles
Flexibility
New kinds of learning
Types
Trips of discovery
Trips of exploration
Trips of Confirmation and Challenge
Other information available at http://www.catoosa.k12.ga.us/~bcaraccio/virtualfieldtrips.htm
Tag: NECC2006
Planned Improvisations July 6, 2006
Posted by lrjohnson in : NECC2006 , add a commentPlanned Improvisations: Technology-Supported Learning Activity Design in Social Studies
Different type of session, one of the speakers is participating via videoconferencing! Check out their web site to get the actual presentation!
Gave a quick review of traditional approaches to Prof. Development
Pockets of amazing things going on in the classroom but for the most part not technocentric. Technology focus but not integration.
Focus is on student’s curriculum standards – content-centric
Shluman’s pedagogical content knowledge
Intersection of teachers content knowledge, pedagogical and technological knowledge
Decisions based on students learning needs and preferences
Taking that intersection and going from there! All of it fits together
Planning and teaching are context dependent, but is really lots of improvisation though not in as much detail
Think of teaching planning as Jazz
Tried and true are riffs
Learning activity plans as lead sheets
Project/unit plans as fake books
Use all the different teaching approaches and integrate them as a planned improvisations
Students needs in central focus, close by standards and contextual factors and digital tech included, all are interdependent
To do this…
Planning Aids: Activity types
Like the idea of designing an exhibit. Would work as a great activity for students to teach the other students
There are several examples of projects on the web, be sure to get their powerpoint!
Need to think about the students needs as we assign projects, not all are effective in small groups or larger groups…
Acknowledge the interdependence, think about the activity types as you plan, let them assist in the planning
Tech interwoven rather than the focus. They plan to work on more lessons. They had 2 in their PowerPoint that look great.