Change of Mind

I have been thinking of my sample groups for my research project and as I have written about in the limitations part and referred to in reliability and validity..... not many teachers are aware of the purpose of blogging and use it like email.
That is not the purpose.
The new digital literacies "expect" a two way conversation. They expect response and reflection. They are the resultof a like minded community building up a collective knowledge.
Edublogs need a careful approach, considered and scaffolded.
I think it will be best for me to act as the participant observer for one sample group of children with whom I can spend some time.
I can still have the other groups. They will act as the audience.
If I scaffold the approach as well, I can work with one group of children until they are comfortable with allthe procedures.
That means the teacher will need to know the process.
To shortcut this, I will need to select a teacher who is familiar with Inquiry learning and has already started web searches with the class.
If I don't find a group with these skills, it will take months to give professional development.
In order to find these groups, I will contact the ICPD clusters through Team Solutions.
I have been told that Blair Giles is there so it may be a good move to do this. Blair has a lot of knowledge of Weblogs and researched their use himself for his 'e-learning fellowship'.
I'll be back.
Pamela

Blumer

I've been trying to find a macro level theory for my research onblogs to fit in. I think it would be symbolic intractionism which has been thought of by Herbert Blumer as a theory to explain the establishment of meaning.
Blumer was a devotee of George Mead and was influenced by Dewey.
His three core principles are meaning language and thought.
Meaning - Humans act towards people and things based upon the meanings they have given those things.
Language - language gives humans a means by which to negotiate meaning through symbols. By engaging in speech acts, humans come to identify meaning (or naming) and develop discourse.
Thought - Thought modifies each individual's interpretation of symbols. Thoughts based on language is a mental conversation or dialogue that requires role taking or imaging different points ofview.
This definition is writen by Lindsey Nelson of the Universityof Colorado.

http://www.colorado.edu/communication/meta-discourses/Papers/App_Papers/Nelson.htm

Another explanation from Wikipedia is " Humans don't just react - we interpret an action - our response is based on the meaning attached to such actions. It is mediated by the use of symbols, by interpretation, or by ascertaining meaning of one another's actions. (stimulus - interpretation - response)"

Blogging allows the actions/ stimulus (postings) to be interpreted and a response made.
Blogging is a circle of stimulus - interpretation - response.

Maybe it goes even deeper than this as people who post on a blog expect a response. That is perhaps the first interpretation. In this case which comes first - the interpretation or the stimulus???

Another thought from Dewey... Knowledge is transactional. Does that fit with today's beliefs of knowledge? ...That it is constantly moving i.e.being moved on being "traded" one meaning for another????

Back tomore reading...
Pamela

Powerpoint on exclusions

Have a look at this powerpoint I sent to my discussion group at Auckland University.
Any comments???
Pamela


http://www.byweb.net.nz/pamela

More from Will

A few more bits from Will Richardson's book. I've left them as they are... rough notes.



Primary schools are just beginning to explore the web’s potential. The ability to easily publish content online will force us to rethink the way we communicate with our students.
We need to rethink our ideas of literacy when we must prepare our students to become not only readers and writers but editors and collaborators as well.

At first glance, these web tools are not suited to standardized testing and government accountability. Some will see the constructivist, collaborative pedagogy of weblogs, wikis etc
Today’s students are far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy. They prefer to access their information on the internet as it is more abundant, more accessible and more up to date.

There is a belief that these digital natives have different brain patterns … they have developed hypertext minds they leap around its as though their cognitive structures were parallel not sequential, Prensky (2001). ie today’s students may not be suited to our lineal progression of learning .

Teachers are digital immigrants.
Young people continue to learn and adopt new media but institutions are much slower to change.

The tools in this book have a good chance of closing that gap as by there very nature they are easy to use.
Even more important, the tools of the Read/Write Web are free.

TOOLBOX P.8
Weblogs…thousands of teachers and children have already incorporated weblogs into their classrooms. Blogs allow an author to publish instantly to the Internet. They can also be interactive allowing teachers and students to begin conservations.
………

The past 25 years has been the warm up act…. Now we are entering the main event…..it will truly transform …education.
SAFETY …either teach the children to be safe OR password OR restrict sites. P 10

Permission is needed. Never publish second name, where they live, etc
Balance needed… consider audience.

More in a few days,
Cheers

Interesting readings

More about blogging. I'm enjoying Will Richardson's book but will finish the reading from last time before I talk about that.

As some of my friends wanted to know more about blogs I will post this for their information.


Comments from David Warlick from The Landmark Project
http://epnweb.org/blogmeister/index.php?id=5120&display=blogmeister

The Web Log shortened to blog came into its own during the 2003 presidential campaign when all of the major candidates sported their own blogs and daily got trashed by the opposition.
It is also showing up in schools where teachers have known for a long time that students develop better communication skills when they are authentically communicating.
Teachers are encouraging students to publish their work as blogs and inviting comments from people in the outside.

BlogMeister, the site I first found about students and blogging, is designed with teachers and students in mind. The teacher can evaluate, comment on and finally publish students’ blog articles in a controlled environment.

David Warlick’s belief “For the fist time in history our job as educators is to prepare our students for a future that we can not clearly describe”
Weblogs are about reading and writing. Literacy is about reading and writing. Blogging equals literacy. How rarely does an aspect of how we live and work plug so perfectly into how we teach and learn.

Bob Godwin Jones http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/default.html talks about the increasing use of blogs in education. He says blogs allow development of writing to be shown over a period of time (as a portfolio) and the ability to publish for an audience beyond the classroom walls. Self publishing encourages ownership and responsibility on the part of the students who may be more thoughtful (in content and structure) if they know they are writing for a real audience.
Blogs are chronologically organized which can be a drawback for project-based learning but I am not intending to use my “blog” for this purpose anyway.

Kirsten Kennedy http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2003/02/blogs.html
says that the collaborative environment where students can give and receive feedback mirrors the way professional writers use a workshop environment to hone their craft.
Jeff Golub the spokesperson for National Council of Teachers of English says that that organisation supports the use ob Web-based publishing tools to celebrate and share students’ writing. Golub who is also associate professor at the University of South Florida teaches future educators three central principles about encouraging students: “Students will write when they have something to say, when they have an audience and when they get feedback.”
Kirsten goes on to say that blogs are a promising new use of technology, having the potential to enhance writing and literacy skills without taking up too much of the teacher’s precious time and resources to set up.
Back to writing and reading for my assignment!!!!!!!
Did I tell you all that i have reverted back to my original question?
Does writing on a blog motivate and enthuse reluctant writers?
Bye, Pamela

Research Project

I have just written up my literature review...... well at least part of it. I have lots more to add from Will Richardson's book! I have completed reading the book and it is everything I thought it would be PLUS. He has given me a bit more to think about with my own little project.
At this stage I do not teach the children I have on my sample blog. In the Third term of school I will probably have a chance to take these children for lessons. This is when the exciting stuff will happen
Will has reinforced the importance of communication on the blogs and how the children need to participate and interact. At present they are inclined to post and not make comments. As part of the research, I will try out what he suggests and that is to get the children to find a good web site then tell us why it is so good. They will also be required to make comments about the choices. This will provide them with opportunities of reflection, clarification of ideas (generalising), and thinking about what they have read. Commenting will be their communication. This addition of information contributes to the pool of knowledge already on the web, using constructivist beliefs. It is a new typeof "knowledge"one that is shared.

What methodology will I use???
I wll sort of be doing two things..... action research with qualitative "overtones"
I will be gathering data by interviewing the children at the end of this term to see how they have felt about their initial venture. They will have been on the blog site for almost two terms by then. I will also be using evidence of time on the site also. Two children continued on the site during the school holidays and one child repeatedly begs to be allowed on at intervals.
The teacher who takes thesechildren for reading says that even though they have scheduled times to go on the computer, the first thing they say when they come it is "Can we go on the computer?" ( meaning to use the blog site)
More later...... I hope the date is right!!!
Pamela

Acting on Melissa's advice!!!

Melissa has given me advice as to howto change the date. I am trying it now.

Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts....

Time has flown but I have completed five assignments now! I still have three major ones to go and will need extensions to get them done. Our family has had a pretty traumatic time as my husband's father became ill on February 17 and recently died. We have had to travel up and down to Wellington and a few weeks ago decided that we had better move back. Luckily we spent some quality time with him while he was alert.

I received this book a few weeks ago and have been devouring it. Iwill post a few bits each day as I think about their implications.


Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts by Will Richardson.
Will has written a new book which I have just received from America.
He writes about the new “genre” of blogging.

The educators behind these tools have very few technology skills but they have ideas and vision of what easy publication tools might do in their classroom.

We are entering a new interconnected world with its continually growing body of knowledge where more and more people are gaining access to the web. This doesn’t just mean being able to read, it means being able to create and contribute content as well. It is a serious shift which means we need to think seriously about the way we currently teach and deliver our curricula.
Will Richardson’s book aims to give educators some context in how the web’s effects will transform education and to challenge and motivate teachers to think differently about their classrooms.

Educators must understand the implications of the web…the social connections, the ability to share and contribute ideas and work, the new expectation of collaboration, the ability to extend the walls of our classrooms.

Will believes it is imperative to get all children access to the web. He also knows it is not a perfect world and that there could be safety issues to work through…
Education has been slow to adapt to the web.
I will add more as I read through the book

Reforming my question

I can't believe its already March 23. I have been totally consumed with all the studies going on. I got my research asignment away on time . I finished my Maths assignment too and have posted it in but left some of the pages showing my workings sitting on my desk. I have emailed to ask if I should send them in but 2 days have gone by and I have not had a reply. Oh well I'm sure I will get one sometime.
Now about my research. I have been thinking about my question. Some of the others in our study group think I should rephrase it to "What effect does writing on a blog have in motivating reluctant writers?"
I wonder. I am trying to find out if blogging appeals to children and if it does, what is it that they like. What about "What does writing on a blog mean to reluctant writers?" or
"Should reluctant writers write on a blog?"
I was thinking about looking into the mechanics of the reading and writing on a screen compared with paper. Also audience. What effect does that have? And context. As I found in that description from Harry Hood, having a real purpose to write really motivated that little girl.
I have also been thinking about the ethics of putting children's photos on the site and have added a bit to the permission form for parents to get their approval and to say that only head and shoulder views will be shown.
I also have drafted up a "contract" that the children could sign agreeing to take part in the research project so they have some responsibility to the rest of the group. They will need to respect the other group members.
Any way back to looking for proof about the effect of audience on children's writing and also hoping to find some information about screen reading and writing.
Ciao,
Pamela