Louise+on+Session+2

I love wikis. Students can be very motivated if you keep expectations high and craft challenging assignments that are more than just busy work. As my material is project based, it allows for ownership of the pages for their teams.

I struggle still with blogging but came away from the open pd with ideas for reflection and perhaps venting about project based assignments. It would be a great way to see what they learn and how they relate the material through their act of writing. In science, we write scientifically so I have to remind myself to ask different questions in order to do this.

Blogging would be a great tool to increase the use of as students gain skills in writing reflectively and presenting information to others. By commenting students learn how to read vs. scan and to offer critiques, ask questions, and state positives or what they learned. They also learn to go back and answer questions that were asked of them.

I am just starting out with the Ning and not sure to what extent I will use it but I consider this a year of playing and trying to use the best medium or tool for what I want to achieve. I also ask for student feedback as to what they think. We tried TIGed but students really did not like it so we will see what they say about Ning. I think they do not want to use something that so closely resembles what they do outside of school. Maybe we are copying too much?