Monday, August 17, 2009

Week 4 Readings

"Happy blogging @ Belmore South"
An interesting article which follows the blogging activities of one class.

Key Ideas

1. Blogging is a powerful tool that teachers can employ in their classrooms today. Not only does it connect the students to the world outside the classroom but can also be used to open channels of communication between the author and their audience.

2. Blogging can lead to student directed learning which would allow them to identify areas of weakness. Students would then be able to work at these areas in a an engaging and motivating way allowing for authentic feedback.

3. The school day would not end at 3.00pm as students could continue their schooling experience at home as blogging makes the link easy.

(Pericles, K. 2008. Happily blogging @ Belmore South. Scan Vol 27).  

Literacy Instruction with digital and media technology.
This article focuses on the use of lap tops in schools.

Key concepts

1. Connecting to the internet or use of lap tops in school provide scaffolding for many subjects thus creating background knowledge for the student.

2. During recess and school breaks throughout the day the researchers of this article found that students spent this time inside on their lap tops. Does this inspire anti social behavior and less time on physical activity for the student? Teachers need to reach a happy balance to ensure students are still participating face to face with their peers.

3. It is hard to access or measure student knowledge gained from using digital and media literacies, however research suggests that students did not regress on outcome assessments because of the inclusion of new literacies.

(Barone, D, & Write, T.E. (2008) Literacy instruction with digital and media technology. The Reading Teacher, 62. 292-302)

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