Blogs
With my exploration of Google Blogger this week, I have discovered numerous
technical features that I was previously unaware about. Blog posts appear in a reverse
chronological order. This is a useful feature if you are regularly following
someone’s blog to avoid scrolling down to the bottom of the page to read their newest
entry. Blogs are generally single author writing, this is unless you share your
log in details with someone else or if you are perhaps in a group and all
contribute to the blog. There is the feature for other people to add comments
to your blog on their thoughts and opinions which is a great option or providing feedback. The
layout of your blog can be customized to an extent. There are a variety of
templates to choose from that have colours and styles that can complement
your blog's theme. You are also able to change the layout of your blog with your
choice of heading layout and photo display and useful information. Blogs also
allow you to embed various media into your posts, ranging from photos, images,
videos and links to websites. The privacy settings involve numerous different
features as who can comment on your blog and whether or not you view the
comment before allowing it to be posted. There is also a Privacy Policy page
that details all the information that Google Blogger can do with the details you
provide them. I found Blogger a very user friendly website and was able to
discover various features with relative ease. I also found that with no
previous experience it only took a matter of minutes to navigate my way around the website and feel
confident in what I was doing.
The use of blogs in my classroom would encourage various learning outcomes that support my digital pedagogy. I would predominately have my students use a blog in an assignment/assessment situation where they would record the process they went through in constructing their desired project. I would also have my students use blogs when designing projects where they could follow and collaborate with other students in their class but also other students in other schools where they could follow each others blogs about design elements, materials to be used and different construction processes. These activities will provide a solid supportive and collaborative mentality that the students can feel comfortable in expressing their own thoughts and opinions in.
A suggestion of how I would specifically use this in an assignment/assessment situation was made aware to me when reflecting on my last years prac. My students were completing an assignment where they were to design and construct an object only using used plastic bottles and where the item created must be able to be used as a functioning/useful object. In this situation, I would ask my students at the end of each week to write about the process that they had gone through that week in the development of their project. They would be able to record changes in their thoughts on design, links to YouTube videos of projects that have been completed by others and upload photos of different ideas and go through an analysis process until they had come up with their own ultimate design.
From a teachers perspective of using ICT for learning, this would give the availability to follow each students thought process and make comments along the way to help and guide them in their decision making process at any time and not just restricted to classroom lesson time. It would also provide a detailed account of the journey taken to achieve this desired outcome which is just as important as the execution and building of the object. The students would also learn from this form of ICT as they could follow each others blogs and make suggestions to their peers as well as receive prompt feedback from the teacher. They would also have the option of following blogs of others who were concerned about environmental issues and collaborate ideas with them.
Blogs provide a good example of how using ICT for learning can be implemented into the Manual Arts teaching discipline and this is definitely a good form of digital pedagogy. To support this, I have used the SAMR model to demonstrate how blogs can be beneficial in the classroom and value add to the learning of students.
A suggestion of how I would specifically use this in an assignment/assessment situation was made aware to me when reflecting on my last years prac. My students were completing an assignment where they were to design and construct an object only using used plastic bottles and where the item created must be able to be used as a functioning/useful object. In this situation, I would ask my students at the end of each week to write about the process that they had gone through that week in the development of their project. They would be able to record changes in their thoughts on design, links to YouTube videos of projects that have been completed by others and upload photos of different ideas and go through an analysis process until they had come up with their own ultimate design.
From a teachers perspective of using ICT for learning, this would give the availability to follow each students thought process and make comments along the way to help and guide them in their decision making process at any time and not just restricted to classroom lesson time. It would also provide a detailed account of the journey taken to achieve this desired outcome which is just as important as the execution and building of the object. The students would also learn from this form of ICT as they could follow each others blogs and make suggestions to their peers as well as receive prompt feedback from the teacher. They would also have the option of following blogs of others who were concerned about environmental issues and collaborate ideas with them.
Blogs provide a good example of how using ICT for learning can be implemented into the Manual Arts teaching discipline and this is definitely a good form of digital pedagogy. To support this, I have used the SAMR model to demonstrate how blogs can be beneficial in the classroom and value add to the learning of students.
Well done Brett. There is some great info here
ReplyDeleteHi Brett
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your SAMR model I think it would work very well with a project where the students have to design the project based around a basic model.