Student Blogs
With a few simple clicks of the mouse, students can have their own Web page and begin creating content for others to see. With blogs, students can create projects that incorporate digital images, audio, video, and hyperlinks.
Student Blogs - Incorporating Digital Images
This photo captures students playing
a probability game. Many students inserted it into a blog entry
to describe the results of the game. |
Interesting and engaging projects can be designed around the use of digital cameras and images, projects that have the potential to motivate students at a far greater level than a simple worksheet. Indeed, digital images can make many concepts come alive. In addition, the selection of subjects and their use requires critical thinking and reasoning on the part of students.
In project-based learning, students typically construct a product to display their work. It may be a physical object, multimedia, or a concept map. In this case, the artifact would be a photo, or a series of photos, that students have taken that display their learning during a project and that have been inserted into a blog entry.
Digital imaging is not limited only to photos, any images created in a digital format (jpg, PNG, gif files) can be put into a blog entry. If you use spreadsheets in your classroom, try creating a graph from one and then saving the graph as an image and then putting it into a blog entry.
Student Blogs - Inserting Audio
Add a new dimension to the math classroom by having students create podcasts, or audio files that they insert into blog entries. Have them explain how they solved a problem, do a report on famous mathematician and record it, explain π, or anything else that can be done verbally.
Podcasts are simple to make and like blogs can be created for free. You'll need a sound editor--Audacity is a simple-to-use piece of software that can be downloaded for free. Once your audio files have been created, you simply need to convert them into mp3 format and then upload them to your blog.
Student Blogs - Inserting Links
A hyperlink is a piece of text that links to another website on the Internet. With blogs, it is possible to link text from your site to another. By using this feature, teachers can direct students to websites that address curriculum in all subjects. When students do the linking though, they are required to find quality websites on their own, assess them, and then share the sites with others. This is an incredibly enriching learning experience that requires multiple skills. See an awesome example of linking in a student blog entry.
Student Blogs - Comments
A link for comments is provided on every entry of a blog. This makes it possible for the student and the teacher to carry on a dialogue about what is taking place in class. Of course, the ability to make comments also opens up collaborative possibilities for students. Any entry can be commented on.
| From
the Classroom: comments |
|
See what your comments look like after posting them to a blog. |
Continue reading about blogs:
Classroom Blogs allow teachers to assess and enrich classroom learning.
Student blogs allow students to create amazing multimedia projects and to communicate and dialogue with another.
Writing with blogs in the mathematics classroom allows students to record their learning in a digital format.
Digital portfolios allow students to demonstrate growth in an electronic format.
Resources for Blogging in the Classroom - Books, links, and even more links.
Check out:
