"Panelists: Blogs are changing education Winners of the first-ever 'Best of the Education Blog' Awards discuss blogging's impact on teaching and learning" article describes how blogging in education has been changing rapidly. When blogging in classes, a student can post their own ideas about a subject and the classmates can respond in their agreements or disagreements. Anyone is able to have access to the discussions posted, whereas the work can be meant for class discussions or for personal views on topics. The Florida Educational Technology Conference was hosted in Orlando, Florida on March 23rd to recognize the "Best of the Education Blog." This conference discussed greatly on how blogging is helping education with students being able to express their ideas and feelings to their peers. A quote from the article that shows how all of education supporters are agreeing with blogging in the education field: "The impact of blogging on teaching and learning can be profound." Children who are using blogging in school are excited to post, comment, and read other peers blogs to get other ideas on topics. Blogging motivates the students in allowing for them to read what other students are posting where as when the work is handed in to the teachers, only the teacher is able to read the work.
In education, learning of technology has been increasing at a ever so rising pace. Elementary students are learning about technology almost all of their lives now a days to better their ability in the work force along with the high demand of technology moving into the classrooms. Blogging is used in schools for many different purposes. Teachers like to use blogging for their students to have better interaction with each other on different topics being learned. When a students posts a blog about their opinion of a story, another student may read the blog and comment on it according to how they feel about it.
In my Intro to Computers through Education class is using the blogging method to allow students to post and comment on their classmates work. I enjoy this by being able to write my own opinion about an assignment, in most cases it is on articles, and I am able to comment on my classmate's work on my opinion of their work. Sometimes when reading an article, I can be narrow minded in thinking the article means one way but when a classmate gives their advice on the subject matter it opens up my horizons. Another way that I am able to see blogging is through my room mate. She is in a Styles and Ways of Blogging class which is all to do with blogging. They have their own blogging site and are assigned to post a blog each week. These blogs are up to the students and allow for them to be created. My room mate has made her blog personalized to her interests. For instance, the name of her blogging website is "Lenscapees". Kind of like Landscapes but she likes to take photos so its Lens is added instead of Land. She communicates with her fellow classmates through this in seeing how blogging can have an affect on her opinion of things and education.
I think that future research must be done on blogging because like myspace and facebook, blogging could become open to everyone and be more of a journal page rather than to better the technology through education.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Virtual Field Trip
The Title of the Article is Virtual Field Trips - Why, Where and How To. I found this article off of CNN.com. I picked this article because I was able to click on different links to better understand different places online that could be used as virtual field trips. The article illustrates how virtual field trips are good to reward the students with when they are having good behavior and attitude throughout the classroom. The virtual field trips allow for the curriculum to be switched from the teacher lecturing to the students having hands-on experience through computers. They can see different places in the world through photographs and videos. Students are able to chat with people from that country which allows for them to better understand the difference in cultures. The article has different links that one can visit to get ideas for what places teachers would like for their students to explore. One that popped out in my mind when reading this article is the website to “Galapagos Geology on the Web” which provided information about the Galapagos Islands in a scientific and non-scientific ways. As a child, I always enjoyed learning about the Galapagos islands and think that it would have helped my education to be able to go on a virtual field trip to such a place. This place is not welcoming to many tourists, mainly only scientists. The animals are endangered and the website allows for me to see the different types of animals and plants in this area. The website also allows for me to email some of the scientists that have had the opportunity to go and give me some feedback as to what it is like over there.
I think that virtual field trips are good for students to learn the subject matter more effectively. When searching around on the web and going to different sites, the students will tend to automatically remember what they have seen. When a teacher lectures to them about the material, the students tend to fade and do not realize exactly what they are talking about. Through this type of technology, they can now understand the culture background and the different environments that people are being brought up in. Computers can help students have more hands-on activities with around the world instead of only science. Learning different geographical sites and monuments through different websites will allow them to better understand it rather than just reading about it from the book. Sometimes there are questions the students would like to ask that are not answered in the book and teachers do not always have the answers. Asking the people from that country will allow for answers and more interest from the students.
Students are enabling themselves to get more computer literate when searching the websites for interesting facts about a certain place. They can directly relate their interests when seeing someone who is living in this type of environment and having the opportunity of talking with them. It’s good to reiterate what is learned through a book or a lecture through something hands-on and productive. I had never heard of Virtual Field Trips but I am now excited to be able to share this with my students when I become a teacher.
I think that virtual field trips are good for students to learn the subject matter more effectively. When searching around on the web and going to different sites, the students will tend to automatically remember what they have seen. When a teacher lectures to them about the material, the students tend to fade and do not realize exactly what they are talking about. Through this type of technology, they can now understand the culture background and the different environments that people are being brought up in. Computers can help students have more hands-on activities with around the world instead of only science. Learning different geographical sites and monuments through different websites will allow them to better understand it rather than just reading about it from the book. Sometimes there are questions the students would like to ask that are not answered in the book and teachers do not always have the answers. Asking the people from that country will allow for answers and more interest from the students.
Students are enabling themselves to get more computer literate when searching the websites for interesting facts about a certain place. They can directly relate their interests when seeing someone who is living in this type of environment and having the opportunity of talking with them. It’s good to reiterate what is learned through a book or a lecture through something hands-on and productive. I had never heard of Virtual Field Trips but I am now excited to be able to share this with my students when I become a teacher.
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