February 11, 2014

Class tonight is a lot of fun. We are learning about webquest and project based learning. This seems very interesting and I can't wait to create my own webquest. This week I also plan to work on my wiki page a bit. I think I can spruce it up and make it more interesting with a few more links. I also learned about Symbaloo tonight, and plan to play around with that quite a bit. I have room for around 40 more tiles, so I plan to work on that a bit more as well.

Jan 28th discussion

1. How can you use blogs in your classroom? Remember - blogging can contain video recording, this is normally called vlogging. I would say there are several uses for blogging and vlogging in the classroom. I like the idea of vlogging lectures for older students, that they can go back and review. 
2. Where or how will blogs fit into your curriculum? I see myself as a social studies teacher in middle school and can see using blogs and vlogs to record lectures and assignments. Students of this age would benefit from having an online resource where they can see the current assignments and related material. I also believe that students would benefit from blogging themselves. I think that journaling is a great self reflection tool and would use it to help students gauge their own growth.
3. What is the purpose of blogging in the classroom? Blogging in the classroom's main purpose would be those I have already touched on. I think having an electronic recordof current classroom events would be a useful tool, I also think that journaling is an important tool in learning. Furthermore, students can read what their peers took from an assignment and look at a lesson from another person's perspective, which helps to open the mind and encourage a more thoughtful dialog.