Trying to explain
As I have been reporting here, I have been working hard with my 7th and 8th grade students this year (for the first time) using blogs and podcasts. I plan on completing Will Richardson’s trinity by working with wikis in the next marking period.
My students have loved, loved, loved using blogs and creating podcasts, and their results with each have been extraordinary. Using the blog work as evidence, I can see that every single student’s writing has improved over the course of the year. Other teachers had told me to expect this, but it is nonetheless humbling.
By the way, I don’t think it is the “blog” that does it, I think it is the chance to do so much writing, and so much writing in public, and so much writing in public with a real audience that makes the difference.
The podcasts have opened up a different world in my classroom. While blogs are a community tool, we write alone. I have had my students author podcasts as a group project in order to review for an upcoming test. They decided on a topic and/or subtopic within this unit (Reproduction and Development this time), they worked as a group to decide on a format (lecture, skit, video). They then wrote the script, recorded, and edited their podcasts (with some help from me).
I devoted a few class periods for this work and marveled at the level of engagement I saw in the students. Each student was actively involved and invested in the outcome. And they really learned their material.
Given all this success, I have been asked to do some presentations to teacher and administration groups, which has caused me to wonder (and to try to explain) just what is happening. Since, I am a visual person, I had to put together a diagram:
I think that these tools (blogs, wiki, and podcasts) give unprecedented ability for students to author and collaborate on their work. And this collaboration can take place, easily, in or out of the classroom. And since this is happening in a public space, there is the opportunity for authentic interaction with people beyond the school walls.
I have come to believe it is the opportunity to author that matters to the students and to their learning, not the tools themselves. And since the the number of possible tools is expanding daily, I am very much looking forward to what kinds of student authoring we will see next.
