Liebke

Click on the video below to see an explanation of how my students and I will use our World History and Geography/Art Edublogs.org site.

cordoba1

When I teach the unit on the rise and Spread of Islam in my 7th grade social studies class, we wind up in Spain as the city of Cordoba was the western capital of the Islamic Empire. I read an excerpt from the brochure of Cordoba that I received when I had a chance to visit this summer. Along with it, I played music I purchased in Granada, called En Mi Alhambra. I will play this for students as I show them pictures of Cordoba. Hope this doesn’t bore you too much.

Analysis

The users of this Edublog will be 7th grade social studies students at Pacific Beach Middle School and sometimes their parents. I want students to use my blog for many things.  First of all, I want students to use my blog as an example to set up their own blogs.  On my blog, they will:

• Learn about the course
• Learn about me
• Follow directions to set up their own blogs
• Have access to their class mates’ blogs
• Find all resources necessary for my class e.g. videos, links, audio of text book, notes, course syllabus, etc.
• Use my unit posts to access the Holt website for their text book to take section quizzes and do deeper research (GATE)
• Respond to prompts about what we are learning
• Ask questions and/or give feedback to me

On their blogs, they can:

• Show their class mates who they are
• Learn how to design their own website
• Upload their class projects (variety of multimedia projects to include word docs., power points, video, podcasts)–I do not have the entire year mapped out yet.
• Receive feedback from their class mates and me
• Set up pages for multiple subjects
• Many more things I have not yet thought up

I intend for this blog to be sort of a 7th grade portfolio.  I got this idea from Karl Richter, my instructor from this class. In addition, as per an assignment from Karl, I discovered that video could be uploaded from teachertube onto Edublog. This is a fantastic way for students to share their videos with each other and their parents at home without using up space on a computer’s hard drive by having to download it.

There is a personality that comes across through online collaboration. I would really like my students to allow this personality to come out. I think it will break a lot of barriers of shyness that occur in class. Maybe about half of my students have online access at home, but even in class I could allow them time to use the computers for their blog and I think the voices will be greater than when asked to respond to a prompt in class. With 15 laptop computers in my class, I intend to have 3 students assigned to one computer.  That way, students can work in class as well as at home.

Design

When users visit this site, the main goals I have for them are learning the California HSS standards for 7th grade by listening, speaking, reading and writing, using our text publisher’s resources online, and as a resource for assignments. I am also interested in the opinions and thoughts of my students. There is very little time in class to get the content in and address individual students during one period. I hope this blog will give students the space to ask questions and share thoughts that they’d ordinarily be too shy to do in the class or unable to do due to time constraints. I intend for this blog to be an ongoing project and that students make at least one-two entries/week. I do not want to ask more of them as they have 6 other teachers who may require the use of a blog and I have to read 130 of them. I do not want this to feel like busy work for students, I want them to enjoy this and learn from it. I can see how a blog may allow me to get to know my students better and help them feel noticed and validated even if there is not time to express this in class. It took me awhile to catch on, but I’m starting to see great potential with Edublogs.

Development

The tools that I’ll use to support this site will include: links, video, photos, attachments. I will probably get more creative with it in time, but I’m new to Edublogs and can’t yet imagine all the uses we will get from this tool. I’ve customized this site to have my picture in Spain of the Alhambra in Granada. We will study this during the school year. I will customize this site with many visual aids from the places we study in our social studies class as well as videos, podcasts, and links to other resources. I hope to be happy with the outcome of this site, however, time will tell. If students are using this as I hope, then I think my feelings for this site will increase with time.

Implementation

To introduce this to my class, I’ll start by having students log onto a computer and storing the link to my site in their school network folder that has been set up by our network technician on site. Once they have stored this link, I can have them begin using this immediately. Students will have their own Edublogs.org site, much like we do in Karl’s class, for creating a blog and sharing their projects. Potential problems I see are restrictions within district networks, and not having enough computers for everyone. If I want students to set up their own blogs and log on in order to comment on mine, then we may run into some parental concerns which could hinder some students’ ability to set up an account. These are matters I’ll have to discuss with my principal once the school year is under way.

Evaluation

I think judging the success of this site will be fairly easy. If I am getting student buy-in and receiving terrific comments and questions from most of my students, then the site is a success in my eyes. I expect student engagement to be high, especially when they learn what all they are able to do with edublogs.  So often, students’ voices go unheard. I am often guilty of not hearing what my students have to say because of time constraints or shyness on the students’ part. I think this blog will give students time and confidence to provide appropriate feedback. Finally, this is hip and new technology. I have noticed that the more technological tools I introduce into my class room, the more my students are engaged. It’s almost like they expect to learn from me. How about that? When students use technological tools to study a subject, I think they value their education more. When students don’t get to utilize technology, they seem to feel as though the teacher of that class has nothing to offer. Children are smart, perhaps they’re right.

I’ve had an unbelievable trip to Spain and London. Started the first week with my friend Kendra. We went from London to Barcelona to Valencia to Granada to Madrid. We met with Paul, my husband, in Madrid after which Kendra went home and Paul and I continued to Segovia, Merida, Sevilla, Cordoba, Barcelona, London. The only glitch that occurred was the theft of my camera in Barcelona–yes, all photos from Segovia to Barcelona were lost. Still recovering from that loss as so much of what I photographed was intended to be shared with my students. The scenery, however, was amazing and it was great to share the experience with Kendra and Paul. Now I’ve got to get back into the grind of course work.

Tata!!