Another quick post to highlight a couple of interesting ideas for using Internet tools in the classroom.
First up is Chris and her Process Report blog. If you visit the blog, it will be fairly clear what she is up to but she explains it all in a recent post on her blog. She is doing this to help her pupils improve their creative writing skills, but I don't see why a similar technique would not work with pretty much any writing task. Are your pupils writing a report on a programming task in Computing? Are they describing a visit to their aunt's in French? Are they creating a newspaper article on a recent world event for Modern Studies? Are they... you get the picture. I can think of few writing exercises that would not benefit from constructive criticism from a wider audience, or even just from their classmates in a blog environment. What do you think? Am I letting my enthusiasm get ahead of the practical realities of teaching in schools?
The second post I wanted to highlight is an entry in Straun's blog, The Tree House, where he uses Bebo to talk to senior pupils about Internet safety in a post titled To Bebo, or not to Bebo? It's brilliant stuff and I think that a similar lesson should be compulsory for every teenager. Struan's blog has already been added to my Bloglines list and if his posts stay even close to the quality of this one he will be required reading for my students next year.
Technorati Tags: blog, education, teacher training, internet safety, classroom, writing, DavidDMuir, EdCompBlog
How to Get Kids Excited About Writing
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I thought Bebo, like Flickr, was invitation-only. It's understandable if the youngsters feel that they're in a safe environment.
It does have the "illusion" of being a safe environment, but it doesnt take much to get a few key bits of info an its users. The think that I find particularly troubling about bebo is that it seems to give you users in your geographical area on its homepage! This coupled with full names and town or village is a recipie for disaster (unless we can educate the users of the site).
PS: Thanks for your encouragement David, although nothing like setting me up for a fall!
I am really interested in using a blog to help pupils benefit from peer assessment for critical written work in art during my next placement. Can you tell me what site would be the best to set up a blog with? and also im worried about any problems that might arise of asking pupils to go onto the internet at home as homework etc - how do i pitch it to the school and teachers? thanks.
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