1. The new literacies are the 21st century skills needed in order to successfully navigate in today's technological society. These skills involve more critical thinking and synthesizing of information as well as being able to evaluate information from a wide-range of sources. These literacies are important in the k-12 classroom because we want to prepare our students to be able to fully engage with all of the information available to them. Students need to be taught how to navigate through the Internet and to think critically about the information presented there. They also need to know how to navigate through the Internet safely. They need to be taught how to find the information that will meet their needs.
With the rapid explosion of information available to all of us and with the advent of wiki's, blogs, and many other ways for everyone to add his or her voice to the discussion, we have entered a "society of authorship", (November, 2010). Students need to understand how to add their own voices to the discussion, how to evaulate information presented by others, and how to access alternative viewpoints in order to be fully prepared to engage in society.
2. My school's policy about posting student work online is that students' last names cannot be posted for the protection of children who might be in the center of custody battles, etc.etc. Along the same vein, pictures of students cannot be posted online without written permission from their parents/guardians.
3. A weblog is a way for someone to post their opinions, to discuss and reflect on their experiences, and to share these things with others in a fairly open-forum. There are numerous ways blogs can be used to improve teaching and learning. Teachers could use blogs to collaborate on project ideas, to discuss issues they are having within their classrooms, and to share experiences and ideas with other teachers.
A class could use a blog to discuss literature being read in the classroom or to discuss other projects or activities taking place. Students could also use blogs to share their work and solicite feedback from others.
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on my blog. To answer your questions. . . ..
Yes , my daughter does have the students blog electronically daily on her site. It's working out really well. She usually poses a generic question and they will of course answer it. For example, they recently had a presentation to do in class. On the following day, the question was-How did you feel while presenting to the class? Were you nervous, excited, explain. Another question posed was, Did you lose power during the storm? Where did you go? What did you do? Explain. My daughter said her students love to blog and truly enjoy reading what the other students write. They are very comfortable blogging. She also feels that by blogging it gives a voice to the student who may be shy to share his/her thoughts and ideas. It also allows for freedom of expression without feeling like you'll be judged or criticized by your peers in an open forum. In addition, as a student you can take all the time you need to really think about your answer and formulate your thoughts and words. I think blogging would give the teacher a powerful insight of how that student thinks and conveys his/her feelings. You should try it with your students and see how it goes! My little ones (3 & 4 year olds) have a ways to go yet!