My precious clustr map

My poor little map, you started to break out in spots

Then I realised they that they were in fact good dots,

Somone was actually visiting me

So I started writing with glee!!

Giving you prime spot I  put you right up at the top

But now that you are so red, you are at the bottom

However, even there you are never forgotten.

Once I had learned how to add widgets to my blog, I inserted a clustr map. The sheer delight and excitement of red dots appearing have to be experienced to be believed. I hear shouts of excitement in my classroom from students when dots appear. Now, when I start my lesson, I know that I have to allow several minutes for students to check out their maps as this is the first thing they do. Screens all around the room have  maps enlarged (double clicking on them) and discussion takes place as to the country’s origin.

Do blogs improve learning outcomes? Yes, yes, yes! They are one of the most motivational factors that I have witnessed in teaching. For those wary souls out there, if nothing else, knowledge of geography has improved vastly. In a recent post prompt of students, I asked students how they determined which countries their dots appeared in and these were their answers:-

• a real atlas
• the ditgital atlas on our computer network
• asking a teacher or fellow student.

This surely is a great example of student directed learning.

However, it is with dismay that we found out that each 12 months, the clustr map reset. Jess has already had hers reset and lparisi and her students. I haven’t had the heart to tell my students that yet!!!

More comments on my post prompt, came from other teachers within our school and I shall add them below:-

Jess:-I love my Clustrmap too! I usually have it on the front page of my blog so I see it all the time. It makes me feel good to know that people are stopping by my blog! The effect that is has on my blogging is motivating me to write a post when maybe I wasn’t going to because it is confirmation that people think I have something to say that is interesting
Wendy S I love our class cluster map and we get very excited checking out who has visited our site. We are going to have to get a big map of the world to work out some countries. WOW, Yes, another country, where’s that?: are some of the words I have heard from the kids.

Margm Couldn’t agree more with all these comments Anne. I LOVE seeing my visitors and my own knowledge of geography is increasing as we rush to the map to see where the country might be. It’s actually lovely to feel the same excitement that the kids feel and you can appreciate the motivation it is to continue blogging. Thanks to you and Jess for your continued inspiration. We love you lots xoxoxox

Setting up class blogs

My friend Marie sought advice from one of my mailing lists on setting up a class blog. Her request is “ I have been approached to facilitate a blog for distance education students (juniors). This is an exciting opportunity to enable distance ed students to connect and I am just wondering the best way to go about this. My issues are”…as follows. My responses have been added to this post as there may be others who read this blog who might be interested or wish to comment on or add to my advice. John Pearce also wrote a wonderfully detailed response and I learnt from it as well. So make sure you read his post.

1.  I am wonderng whether it would be better to have one blog that the
students can contribute to rather than a blog each.

Response:- Initially I would have one blog that students contribute to. This would mean they save their files on a drive and allow you as teacher to grab them either by email attachments and upload them onto the blog post. More work for you, but when confidence with the system grows, revert to individual blogs if all goes well. Or, they could all be added as users rather than administrators. What is role of tutor parents? I would encourage parents to comment back on posts as much as possible.

2. Wondering whether to start off with a ‘closed’ network so that students
can freely post images of themselves, family etc?

Response:- Except in exceptional circumstances, I would never advise closed blogs as this destroys the very nature and potential powerful learning outcomes that can arise. One reason our student blogs are so successful, is that they are ‘out there’, students love them online, comments come in from global students and teachers and this encourages them to continue writing more effectively. The connectedness with other global citizens is something that needs to be experienced to understand the amazing increased learning outcomes. Sharing, connectedness and social networking is what kids love and thrive on. If parental permission is provided, wallow photos of students, groups etc as long as they do not name who is in the photo. You can use software like www.befunky.com to disguise quite well the actual individual photos. After 10 months there have been no cyber safety issues at all.

3.  What subject strand to follow?

Response:- I would start with just general topics and themes, for everyone to get comfortable, confident etc eg Set five goals for the remainder of the year. Describe why the area you live in is unique. Prompts are great and students may be responsible for providing some of the prompts each week. A general literacy or English area would be the easiest or civics and citizenship. Geography might be a good one due to the nature of the blog.

4. Cyber safety issues:

Response:- A page linked added to the home blog with some valuable links. I like some of those linked on the global teacher page.

5.  Understanding copyright issues. 

Response:- This is a big issue. Students and even some staff feel that anything on the internet is free for all and it needs to be constantly ‘drummed in’. There are some great little videos on youtube and teachertube. Be prepared to keep commenting back when issues arise. It is another learning activity.

6. Anyone who is running a class blog envisage what I may need to prepare/have missed?

 Start simple, then add to it as it evolves. Students themselves will drive the direction and indicate other things that can be added. An about me page is essential. Links to other global class blogs will encourage students to read other’s work, and see the potential of blogging. Encourage them to add comments on other student work. Other keen global students will then return to the blog, comment and the connections start. I have started getting students from other areas and countries coming to my blog and commenting on post prompts, so my class is increasing in size all the time and this makes it so exciting for teachers. Add the clustr map as that is a great motivator.  If students have individual blogs, get them to add a photo a week with a brief description (one they have taken of course) Encourage the addition of multimedia to cope with multiliteracies. A voicethread for students to introduce themselves would be great on one page (avoiding any personal details.) Photo manipulation and resizing needs to be taught as well.

Footnote: Initially, the biggest issue will be teaching them how to use and drive their blog. This will take some coordination and tutuorial type activities. Being distance education students, I assume that they are savvy with emails and other technological equipment, which means they are comfortable and confident with technology.

Wishing you all the best as this a great activity for connectedness that would be much needed by distance ed students.!

20 reasons why students should blog

Blogging is such powerful learning material and students should blog.

Why?………………………Here are just 20 reasons 

This post has been written as a draft for a few days, but I wish to publish it now, in support of @alupton and his wonderful minilegends. (They have been asked to remove their blog by their education department)

1. It is FUN! Fun!….. I hear your sceptical exclamation!! However, it is wonderful when students think they are having so much fun, they forget that they are actually learning. A favourite comment on one of my blog posts is: It’s great when kids get so caught up in things they forget they’re even learning…   by jodhiay
2. authentic audience – no longer working for a teacher who checks and evalutes work but  a potential global audience.
3. Suits all learning styles – special ed (this student attends special school 3days per weeek, our school 2 days per week, gifted ed, visual students, multi-literacies plus ‘normal‘ students.
4. Increased motivation for writing – all students are happy to write and complete aspects of the post topic. Many will add to it in their own time.
5. Increased motivation for reading – my students will happily spend a lot of time browsing through fellow student posts and their global counterparts. Many have linked their friends onto their blogroll for quick access. Many make comments, albeit often in their own sms language.
6. Improved confidence levels – a lot of this comes through comments and global dots on their cluster maps. Students can share their strengths and upload areas of interest or units of work eg personal digital photography, their pets, hobbies etc Staff are given an often rare insight into what some students are good at. We find talents that were otherwise unknown and it allows us to work on those strengths. It allows staff to often gain insight to how students are feeling and thinking.
7. Pride in their work – My experience is that students want their blogs to look good in both terms of presentation and content. (Sample of a year 10 boy’s work)
8. Blogs allow text, multimedia, widgets, audio and images – all items that digital natives want to use
9. Increased proofreading and validation skills
10. Improved awareness of possible dangers that may confront them in the real world, whilst in a sheltered classroom environment
11. Ability to share – part of the conceptual revolution that we are entering. They can share with each other, staff, their parents, the community, and the globe.
12. Mutual learning between students and staff and students.
13. Parents with internet access can view their child’s work and writings – an important element in the parent partnership with the classroom. Grandparents from England have made comments on student posts. Parents have ‘adopted’ students who do not have internet access and ensured they have comments.
14. Blogs may be used for digital portfolios and all the benefits this entails
15. Work is permanently stored, easily accessed and valuable comparisons can be made over time for assessment and evaluation purposes
16. Students are digital natives - blogging is a natural element of this.
17. Gives students a chance  to show responsibility and trustworthiness and engenders independence.
18. Prepares students for digital citizenship as they learn cybersafety and netiquette
19. Fosters peer to peer mentoring. Students are happy to share, learn from and teach their peers (and this, often not their usual social groups)
20. Allows student led professional development and one more……
21. Students set the topics for posts – leads to deeper thinking activities

This is surely powerful learning!!

Since this post was written, students have been asked to give their reasons why they should blog and here is a year 9 girl’s answer. 

Some further posts that might be of interest

1. What I need to teach students in order to blog!
2. Keeping Students Cybersafe - the first and most important lesson

A classroom without walls

I have experienced two more amazing events today. After spending most of last night researching cybersafety sites and collecting some wonderful reference points from my twitter colleagues re links, sites and online videos, I went to upload them onto the desktop in the lab which projects onto the datashow. However, our internet was down. A crazy 30 mins was spent trying to get it going again and trying to think of an alternative activity to fill in the double IT class of years 9/10. Fortunately, it came on eventually and students immediately went to their blogs. Comments had started to come in from US students, the Netherlands and our staff members. So, I ended up using none of my preplanned materials as students set about commenting back, researching those global student blogs and adding a clustrmap to their own blogs. Itwas a teachable moment that expanded for 90 mins with students activating their own learning. Even the most reluctant of readers were researching the blogs and then my students wanted to improve theirs.

The next was another powerful learning moment. Jeff Whipple who is active in helping set up the middle school 1001 flat tales project, kindly offered to demonstrate wikis to the grades 4-6 students. Jeff Whipple (read his blog about us) is from Canada, where the temp was -16 degC and the time was 10:00pm. In comparison, we were enjoying a 25 deg sunny day, 12:00pm timeslot and students were to go swimming at the local pool. Interesting conversations flowed, our link was excellent and the students thoroughly engaged, even seeing Jeff’s pet cat via the camera!!! Skype was our videoconferencing software.

Jeff used the SMART Technologies Bridgit IWB conferencing tool to allow our IWB access his laptop screen so we could see the wiki students will collaboratively work on. He gave them a bit of a discovery tour.  Various fascinated staff were also present, including our principal. Such amazing technology for a Canadian teacher to be teaching our Aussie students in real time, via his laptop.

Our principal told our local newspaper about the activity and they immediatley sent out a reporter and a photographer on a 30 min trip to our school (an almost unheard of event in the past.) Unfortunately Jeff had signed off skype so I urgently tried to contact him via twitter where I read his latest post. He soon skyped me back and waited up another 45 mins to allow himself to be photographed via our IWB with two young students talking to him.

An amazing day!!!!! Hope I can sleep tonight as it is all so exciting!!