The idea of social bookmarking will certainly get some play in my classroom. Although I currently use Delicious (and I use the term "use" loosely) I will be creating a Diigo account. With Delicious, I like that initial searches have been filtered by others, so I can essentially skip the somewhat daunting task of trying to find information in the vast repository of the Internet. Having others do the initial legwork can help save time and produce better quality results. With Diigo, I plan to use the sticky note feature to annotate what we are reading in class. What a great opportunity to look at a piece of literature as a class, and allow students to make comments directly to the document. The fact that this document can be shared with other students eliminates the usual learning in isolation problem. Through Diigo, students can read the comments of other students, and add additional comments to help our overall understanding of the piece. I also like the ability to tag items based upon student interests, and allow RSS feeds concerning those interests come right to the student. Diigo allows me to add sticky notes to the items that students will receive, and can help them focus on what I thought was important.
The idea of podcasting has been on my mind for about a year now, and I think that I have finally found a purpose for it in my classroom. I teach the interview process in my classes, for both research and socialization purposes. With podcasting, I can have the students interview other students and teachers regarding current policies at our school. Through the process, students will have to make arrangements to meet with the individual to be interviewed, present a list of questions to be asked prior to the meeting, and then edit the interview to fit the scope of the project. I think there are so many positives that will be derived from the project, but professionalism, accountability, and organization are the three that stand out. The fact that podcasts can be saved indefinitely gives me the capability to provide examples of prior student work to introduce new projects in years to come.
The screencast capability will be a nice tool as my class becomes more digital. Currently, I take students through the process for using some of these tools in class, but by the time they attempt to use the tools, much of the information has been lost. By creating screencasts, students will have video tutorials concerning how to use tools that I have introduced in class, and these tutorials will be placed online and accessible anytime by my students.
I think that this weeks work really has some possibilities in my classroom. I need to be careful not to try too much too soon. There are some other tools and skills that need to be mastered before I move on to these new areas, but I know that the new information will tie nicely to what I am going to introduce first.
Ryan, what will you do with the podcasts that your class creates around the issues at your school? I hope you can find a good place for them. I work at a middle school where at least once a year I get a well intentioned 8th grader asking me to sign their petition to make school lunch healthier. I sign it, but it never goes anywhere, because there is no audience for a petition on torn out notebook paper.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to hear more about the plans for the podcasts, because I think it is a great idea.
Jason,
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of the assignment is more about the interview process than the subject matter. I want students to realize the power of the interview for the purposes of research. I, like you, have been approached by well-intentioned students who want to see changes at our school. I also have witnessed the manner that information is collected an know that the process will never be successful. But by having students interview others concerning policies specific to our school, I will also hopefully eliminate the temptation to plagiarize information. With that said, hopefully by thinking about issues that are important to students, I can help them formulate plans to take change to the next level. I will let you know how the process goes. :)