Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Podcasts pt.4: Blogs & Wiki

What Steph has to say:
I love blogs! I have always enjoyed posting to and reading blogs, even the old Myspace and Live Journal kind when I was younger in school. Blogs in the classroom sound like an amazing opportunity to have your students write (about anything, whether it's a teacher given topic or individually chosen topic). It gives those students who "hate" writing but LOVE being on the computer a new medium to write on.

Yes, blogs are more informal and should not be your only medium for writing in the classroom, but it opens so many doors. Students could comment on classmate's blog posts and so can the teacher. Depending on the nature of the post it could be discussions with thoughts and feelings about the post or it could be constructive criticism for a piece that is to be published in another medium.

I love having this blog. I hope to someday have my students write blogs, like writing journals. I would also like to have a blog "writing journal" with my students. I even love the idea of having a blog to share things we do in our classroom and communicate with the students' family at home.

What Manda has to say:
In my podcast I discussed Wiki Spaces and the ways they could be used in a classroom. As a teacher I would love to have a space for students and their parents to access info about my class from home. I would love to have that available for parents to stay involved in what their kids are doing. I would use it to communicate with parents as well as post reminders of upcoming school events. I would also love for my students to make their own wiki and use it for assignments and communication with classmates. I think it is important to give students the chances to work with technology since it is such a huge part of our world.

Do you use wikispaces in your classroom? Do you use a website or blog to communicate with parents?


~Steph & Manda




4 comments:

  1. I have a website for my class. It's www.room-202.com. I try to update parents every or every other weekend with a blog update. Homework is posted weekly. There are fun videos and photos on the site, too along with a page of important links and resources. Parents love the site and are always thanking me for keeping them updated on what's going on in Room 202. I use iWeb to make the site and it's hosted by a web hosting site called Digital Fortress. I believe keeping parents in the loop is critical! ~Stacy @ http://new-in-room-202.blogspot.com

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    1. Love your site and blog! Following you <3 I definitely love blogging and I know as a parent I wish the teachers in the school would do something, anything. They don't even update their "about me" section on the grade level pages from year to year most of the time! I can't wait to be able to set up a class website and blog!

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  2. I have a tumblr blog (password protected and unlimited photo storage!) that my students update to help their parents see what we're doing in school. The students do all the writing and photography. I think the parents really enjoy seeing it.

    Sweet Rhyme – Pure Reason

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    1. I love the idea of a collaborative blog for the students to post things going on! I would love that as a parent and teacher!

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