I kind of didn't realize how much we had worked on in this class until I looked back...the vlog, the podcast, the wikis, RSS feeds, tappedin... we covered a lot of ground.
I feel as if I have learned a lot, and I feel as if I have a much better idea of how to use technology in my classroom. I have done film making, film studies and media studies units, and I have even done web pages and blogs in the past, but I never even thought of vlog, pod casts, and wikis.
I really enjoy having students create portfolios, though.
When I have done portfolios in the past I have required students to included both a variety of their work and the work that they were proudest of. Sometimes I've done a tic-tac-toe board syllabus where students do all of the assignments, but only have to include in their portfolio three assignments what can "win." This gives them choice while still giving me control (although takes a little time to plan).
I think the advantage of using a blog or a wiki as a portfolio beyond improving a students technological literacy is that its easy for kids to get excited about it. I've seen it work. Students equate the assignment to a sort of school My Space account. They really enjoy getting creative with it. It becomes a place of their own, a place where they have control. And student choice is a huge element in engagement. Of course it can be a struggle to keep it classroom appropriate.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
On on-line feedback...
Rather than describing a hypothetical, I just included a link to a student's creative writing blog. Click on the title of this post to see her blog (note that her last name is used nowhere on the blog).
You will see her short rough draft and among the comments you can see what I wrote (and what some of my student's wrote. You should note that we are just starting to talk about constructive criticism, so this is a new thing for my students, but I'm sure they will get better.)
I choose to address what I thought was the biggest issue in this student's writing rather than attacking smaller issues such as spelling and grammar. We can address those points later. But, for this first post of hers, I gave her some positive feedback and then wrote about how I felt the main character of her story needs to change over the course of the story. This is a classic writing workshop critique, and a major issue that needs to be addressed in any story.
I think it's important to keep on-line feedback positive and constructive -- especially with something as personal as creative writing. Students can easily misconstrue written text because it carries so much less tone that verbal comments.
They way that I am training my students to perform on-line feedback is that we spent some time talking about constructive criticism. We looked at a simple poem that I wrote badly and we went around the room and came up with ways to write criticism. Next, they are required to post three times on other's blogs, but I moderate all the comments initially. I haven't had to deny publication for any of my student's comments. Then, as a class, we are going to look at the first comments and try to figure out which ones were good and why they were good.
I will require that they have three good comments - and they will keep posting till they have given three interesting constructive comments to their peers. (On a feedback sheet I will let them know how many they have that count and why they are good comments.)
You will see her short rough draft and among the comments you can see what I wrote (and what some of my student's wrote. You should note that we are just starting to talk about constructive criticism, so this is a new thing for my students, but I'm sure they will get better.)
I choose to address what I thought was the biggest issue in this student's writing rather than attacking smaller issues such as spelling and grammar. We can address those points later. But, for this first post of hers, I gave her some positive feedback and then wrote about how I felt the main character of her story needs to change over the course of the story. This is a classic writing workshop critique, and a major issue that needs to be addressed in any story.
I think it's important to keep on-line feedback positive and constructive -- especially with something as personal as creative writing. Students can easily misconstrue written text because it carries so much less tone that verbal comments.
They way that I am training my students to perform on-line feedback is that we spent some time talking about constructive criticism. We looked at a simple poem that I wrote badly and we went around the room and came up with ways to write criticism. Next, they are required to post three times on other's blogs, but I moderate all the comments initially. I haven't had to deny publication for any of my student's comments. Then, as a class, we are going to look at the first comments and try to figure out which ones were good and why they were good.
I will require that they have three good comments - and they will keep posting till they have given three interesting constructive comments to their peers. (On a feedback sheet I will let them know how many they have that count and why they are good comments.)
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