Reflection on Blog Posts:
Our first blog post was on blogging. I had never blogged before. I have found that I truly like the act of blogging. I like the idea of reflecting on an issue or something that happened to me that day or even a frustration I have come across. If I were to continue blogging I do wonder if I would keep my blog to a topic (e.x. teaching) or if I would want to blog about anything. I would have to think about the purpose that I would want my blog to serve and the audience I was putting my blog out there for. I think that it would be good to use a blog in my classroom as a precursor to a large group discussion. I would give them the questions ahead of time and they would have to respond to them on the blog. I feel that this is a good idea because then everyone would come to class with an answer and be able to better participate in the discussion. So often, my students clam up when faced with a question when they haven't had time to process the question. They do not want to answer for fear that they look stupid in front of their peers. This would relieve some of that pressure. I would also encourage the use of a blog in my creative writing classes as a way of getting their work out there and garnering feedback that they might not get in class.
Our second blog post was on vlogs. Again, I had never had much experience watching or creating a vlog. I found that it was hard for me in the beginning to create the vlog due to both finding a topic and also what I should say. If I were to do this again I would probably write out more of a script to follow so that I could go over it a few times and get comfortable with what I was going to say.
Our third blog post was on the use of flickr and voicethread. I have to say that I loved this assignment. With the flickr assignment I felt that it gave me a place to be creative and interpret my word or theme in a way others may not have. My ideas only became stronger as I was able to put pictures to them. I think that I am going to use this assignment in my final poetry unit. You could really do this assignment when talking about theme in a literature class as well. You could have the students find pictures that give image to a theme that they find in any novel (or poem). Bringing the pictures into voicethread was great. i liked learning this technology and thought that it was the most user friendly as far as getting into it without having previous knowledge. I am going to have my poetry students use this technology by having the students put images to a poem that they wrote (as well as having them put images to a poem written by someone else) to see if adding those images helped with the understanding of the poem.
Our fourth blog post was on using wikis. Through this class I have found that my previous experience in using wikis was faulty. I don't think that I was taught how to use wikis to their full potential. We just used them as receptacles for student work. Never once were we shown how to use them for collaborative writing and other collaborative projects. I don't know that this technology is a good one to use in my school. A large majority of my students would not do work outside the classroom. Also, many of them do not have computers and/or internet access at home. I know that there is access at libraries, but good luck getting them to go to one.
Our fifth blog post was our reflection on the online role-play. I had never done an online role play before and did not expect to like it as much as I did. I thought that it was going to be boring to participate in. What I really enjoyed, however, was the asynchronous research and posting that we did before having the synchronous chat. I liked being able to take the time and find the material, post at my leisure, respond to others without hurrying through what I had to say. i felt that the synchronous chat was a little too much for me. having to keep scrolling through the posts to find either new ones or replies to your posts was a bit challenging. I would probably do the asynchronous role play idea in my classroom, but again have the same problems as the collaborative wiki. I would have to give students time to use the lab to complete the assignments and at that point it would become asynchronous and I am not sure that they would have gotten as much out of it.
I have to take a second and apologize to my blog partners. I know I am being a little long winded. Sorry.
Our sixth blog post was on using iMovie. I had never made a movie using this technology outside of our technology class when in the English cohort. I still don't think I know all the technologies surrounding iMovie that I could use to make the movie better. I want to learn more and then I think it would be fun to use in a class. perhaps to videotape a poetry performance in order to provide feedback to the performer.
Our seventh blog post was on podcasts. Honestly, I don't think I will ever use a podcast. I think if I was going to record a lecture I would save it as an audio file and just upload it to my class website. I don't think I would require people to subscribe to my podcasts and without that the technology wouldn't be a good one to use.
Our eighth blog post was on ToonDoo. I liked using this technology. I think that I would use it in poetry - again to illustrate what a poem is saying. I also could se using it to help the students better understand a piece of literature. It could be a creative project for a student - they could pick a section of a novel or play and have to create a comic strip or put a few comic strip together in book form to better illustrate what was happening in the story.
Our ninth blog post was about the readability of websites. Although that is not what I want to focus on. I really liked learning the technology of screenshots and applying them to my post. I had never done that before. I think that using a screen shot helps people understand what you are talking about. They don't just read your description, they get to see an actual picture of it. This would help visual learners in the classroom if screenshots were included on handouts.
OUr tenth blog post was about the use of feedback tools. I know I need to use them, but I don't often know which methods work best. I find that I am not always specific enough when it comes to a rubric and it leaves a lot for interpretation. It is a skill I need to get better with.
All in all I have to say I personally learned a lot in this course. I now need to take some time and figure out which of these technologies would be the most useful to incorporate in my classes and for what assignment. I don't just want to use them for no good reason. There needs to be a purpose behind them.
If I would ask my students to provide work to a portfolio, I would want to showcase their growth as a writer. i would use it in a class where they had to go step by step in a project as well as revise the writing piece multiple times. Then they could post each draft and insert comments about the changes they made as well as changes in them as a writer - what their growth was like. I liked the use of the classroom portfolio that was on Mrs. Autrey's website. I liked the fact that it was put out there for the parents to see as well as for them to reflect on their growth as a writer - like they did in their second letter to her.
Well, I think that I have talked ("typed") long enough. See you.
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