Digital Literacy
I do not own an I-Pad, I-Pod, or an I-Phone. It's probably good that I don't either, or I would waste all of my time youtubing. I get online more than ten times a day. Depending on the day, depends on how much time I spend behind a screen. If I am at school and work most of the day I probably spend less than an hour behind a screen, but if I have a day off I probably spend over two hours behind a screen of some sort. It would be safe to say that I exchange around 70% of digital texts with family and friends. The other 30% would be with school and work people. I read a lot of Facebook statuses, I read tweets of my favorite bands, I read news typically on KSL (even though I think it is lousy compared to BBC or NY Times, I like to read local news), I read ads on KSL and Ebay, and I am constantly reading reviews of products on Amazon.
I think I will most likely use blogging in my classroom. I think a class blog could prove very helpful to a high school history class. I could post the syllabus, assignments, announcements, etc. I also really like the idea of having discussions on a blog. That could be a part of their grade, having the students make weekly posts and comments on a class material. I like that, because it gives every student the ability to use their voice. I could even post videos on it from youtube, that could teach an aspect of history. This could be a way of instructing them through technology. In order to do this in my classroom, I would take them to the computer lab and have a tutorial on how to set up a blog, and how to operate within the classroom blog. The only problem I see with this, is not everyone has access to a computer or the internet. If I did know that some students in my class may not have access to a computer, I could allow them to go to the computer lab, once a week to fulfill this assignment.
I really like your idea to use a class blog; I think if you shared that idea with principals on the job search, they would like that idea as well. It gives students (and you) a chance to express themselves, not only through writing but also through music, images, etc.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of each year, I gave all of my students a questionnaire with questions like, "Are you allergic to any foods" (in case I brought treats to class), "do you have access to the Internet at home," and "is there anything else you want me to know about you?" Depending on where you teach, it is quite possible that all of your students have consistent access to the Internet and so you can really make extensive use of blogs. If not, you might check out other possibilities--like loaning school laptops to some students and talking with them about where they can access free WiFi by their houses (e.g., some McDonalds).
Thanks for a great posting! I appreciate your attentiveness to issues of socioeconomic diversity in your classroom.
So how did I not know you had a blog?
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