Glenbrook School is in its first year of BYOD from years 5-8. This has transitioned from the year 4’s having a wider access to classroom devices last year and digital technology being used more in the curriculum.
In my year 5 & 6 class, I use a range of digital platforms such as Google Classroom however upon reflection for this post I have found that I am not using social media enough or in the most effective way. At the start of the year, my students created their own blogs through blogger.com and I linked them to the class blog. We created QR codes for parents, whānau to ensure they had easy access to see their child’s learning/progress.
The students love posting things on their blog and to be fair has mainly been used as a way to present writing. Through different professional development courses and conferences during the year, it has occurred to me that I should not limit the blogs to this only and what is posted doesn’t have to be ‘perfect’ - it is about the process.
In terms of how beneficial social media (blogging) has been to students learning, I think it would be more around the ‘how to’ of computers, blogging, software etc rather than in learning subjects itself. While this is, of course, useful and they have learned a lot through this exploration it hasn’t benefited the students learning in the way I predicted or initially hoped for.
I agree with Kathy Cassidy and it was a good reminder when she talked about technology being a huge part of students lives - they have grown up in this world, it is not all new to them. This fast-paced changing world is their normal. Why make them come to school and learn like we are in the ‘dark ages’?
The main barrier for this has been due to the ‘busy-ness’ of school work and life and not having the systems in place to ensure it is a regular session where students are uploading posts to their blog. Another challenge has been the audience. By not having a clear audience set up it makes it hard for the students to have a real purpose to what they are sharing, to give it meaning. Even though they get a buzz out of sharing their blog by not having a strong established audience it isn’t as powerful as what it could be.
Next year, I am teaching the same year level. In order to address the challenges, I faced this year I intend to set the precedent of students to take ownership for their learning and therefore blogging. By having a clear guideline of what is expected on their blogs I am hoping it will eliminate my workload of having to check each student's blog so regularly.
As well as this I will have parent information ready to go outlining to them what blogs are, how we will be using them and encouraging parents/whānau to comment on them in a positive manner.
Hi Charlotte,
ReplyDeleteI found when reading this that I have had similar experiences with using student blogs. The busy nature of school and other things can often end up taking priority. Also because I do not have one on one devices, logistically getting students to post on their blogs can be time consuming. Also I have had similar issues with the audience, some parents don't engage often with the blogs, other don't leave feedback and some feedback is not positive as some parents expect perfect published work and don't understand that some of the content of the blogs is showcasing learning or progress and is not about presenting a perfect aesthetically pleasing piece of work, despite sharing information on what blogs are and how they intended to be used, I will need to provide more communication and support for parents to make them more successful.
Hi Charlotte,
ReplyDeleteYou have highlighted some important questions about the use of technology and enhance learning, one being the audience for the blog. I tried blogging a number of times with my class but found it unsuccessful as the students did not have a genuine audience to be blogging to. This lead to a decrease in motivation of posting and wanting to share learning. I know there is sites and groups where you can link up with schools and groups to be looking and commenting on blogs however I found all need to be committed to really make it work. I have also used tools such as classdojo and seesaw which proved to be a bit more successful largely because parents could download app and had ease of access to it.
All the best for next year and in the tweaks to are planning on for your students blogs.
I'm wondering if your school is considering introducing it at the lower age groups/ I'm a teacher of a Year 1 class and am about to try to use Dojo's student stories to have my children sharing some work with home. It's a bit of a leap into the unknown but we're going to give it a go!
ReplyDeleteHi Charlotte,
ReplyDeleteYou already addressed one of my big concerns: how will you maintain student motivation and participation without a clear direction?
Having a clear audience will be massively beneficial; this should keep the students on task for longer. Please, please don't stop regularly checking on the blogs. The more you engage with their work the more they will, too.
Perhaps their work could be turned into a portfolio of sorts with the students 'publishing' it themselves. This might allow a great deal of authentic reflection at the end.