Our greatest goal is to help others see what we see - incredible value in the ability to help students become engaged learners with an authentic audience and a real purpose for their work. We think that our technology integration has created increased opportunity for our students to grow their audience and create real purpose for their work. Through this process, we have learned much about what works for us, and we have seen successes along the way. We have had some fun with classroom blogs, websites, wikis and workspaces, and we love to share what we have done and what we have seen others do.
Please post your comments on the blog posts, so we can all share our experiences and learning. There are tons of blogs out there, and in the educational technology world there are many educators (see the Educator's PLN Ning, #edchat on Twitter, or this great post all about finding educators on Twitter) who can't wait to work with you - they understand that this is an interactive conversation, and they have helped many folks implement their technology dreams. A PLN (Personal Learning Network) is exactly what you need, and what you are building at workshops and presentations like this. Keep up the good work!
Why use a blog? The short answer, at least for us, is audience and purpose. In our classrooms it has been an undeniable truth - when students understand that they have an authentic audience and a real purpose for their work, their thinking improves, and we believe that our instruction (check out the TPCK Model) improves. This can be accomplished in many ways; our digital footprint has helped us gain an audience and purpose for the work of our students.
How do I get started with a blog? There is a page just for that topic. There are heaps of options - we simply recommend that you find one that works for you and start playing.
Blogging practices: In this presentation, we are trying to focus on some specific ideas which we feel are our own personal best practices for blogging in the classroom. We will discuss and provide resources to help you with things like critical thinking, effective collaboration, differentiation, and of course audience and purpose! We will focus our attention on making your blog an exciting and interactive hub of critical thinking, collaboration, and sharing. Most everything we will be sharing can work on any website, and can be applied to any level, content, or learner.
Thank you for your participation!
~ Chris and Nicolette
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