Blog Reflection

The instructional strategies that I think would work best with blogs would be scaffolding and constructivism. The reasons for this is when using the blog you could set up some sort of task for the students that would help guide them without actually giving them the direct instruction. A big reason I think it would utilize constructivism is that the commenting and idea sharing would give students a great opportunity to create some knowledge. As a teacher, you could post a thought you want the students to explore, or post a problem you want them to talk about. From there, the students could comment on the post and create their own knowledge through conversations they post in comments.

I think the instructional strategy that would be very difficult to use with blogs would be didactic. I think it would be extremely hard to facilitate as a teacher to provide a general rule and then give students examples in a blog. Having students read a general rule and see an example in a blog is no different than writing it on a whiteboard in front of the classroom.

The idea that I have been considering to bring blogs into my classroom to help my subject matter is to utilize it as a way for students to get help with problems they do not understand. I would like to post a generic post about the lesson that we went over in class. From there, I would like to promote a conversation that the students respond to one another by commenting on the post. I would hope that the students could then answer their own questions by creating a forum of sharing their ideas.

I think that would actually answer the bonus question, trying to get students to understand things by creating a dialogue between the learners would help them to understand concepts better. Especially in math, I think it would benefit them a great deal to have a place where they could get instant access to how to work through problems in a verbal sense.

Getting Wiki With It

Creating my own Wiki has given me so many ideas (both to use educationally and personally).

My url is http://dep53.wikispaces.com/.



I edited Wikipedia's page for my school district by updating some information about our ninth grade center.

Computer-Based Instructional Objects

There are a few additional things that need to be taken into consideration when having students work independently on some computer-based instructional objects (CBIOs). The main thing is you have to taken into consideration the students' comfort level with the technology you are using. Many students are pretty tech-savvy, but how many really know how to navigate through a PowerPoint presentation when their options are limited in navigation? Many students can fly through web pages with ease, but how many really know how to USEFULLY search the internet for information. I think these are big things to take into consideration because we can never assume (because we all know what assuming does...) that our students know how to use the technology just because they are a 21st century learner. If you are using the internet, it is also a good idea to make sure that none of the links you provided students can be browsed through to get to any inappropriate material.

As for some WebQuests, I found this one involving math in video/board games, as well as thh entertainment industry that I thought would really grab students attention. Not to mention, it answers the age old question, "When are we ever going to need this?" I think it really makes the students realize how important their math skills really are in the world. That and it also gives them a chance to put their knowledge to work by playing a few math games at the end.
The URL is http://questgarden.com/102/36/1/100426171111/index.htm.

Another WebQuest I liked was this particular one because it has a good idea behind getting students prepared for the ACT. With more and more of teaching being data driven and a lot of that data is based off ACT scores, I think this WebQuest does a lot to help students prepare without overloading them on a single topic. It allows students to focus on a single idea, then has the rest of the students "teach" each other the topics which they did not research.

The URL is http://questgarden.com/97/49/6/100314134133/index.htm.

Differences between traditional web pages and blogs

Traditional web pages and blogs vary in a lot of ways, but there is one main thing that separates the two. Traditional web pages are a place where you go to GET information or ideas. You access these pages in hopes of reading about something you want to know about. There are web pages that allow you to comment and voice your opinion on the situation, but that's not the intent of the site. With blogs, these are places where you go to SHARE information or ideas. You as the content master are the one putting the information out into the world. An idea that you would like to share or even something you just wanted to let the world know is put out into a forum where anyone can follow to interact with. You become the moderator, allowing what you do or do not want to come into this community of idea sharing with your fellow bloggers. Instead of the web page dictating who can or cannot contribute, or even what can or cannot be said, you are in control of this power. Essentially, information is no longer dictated to you by Internet postings, but you dictate information to the Internet.