Saturday, April 7, 2012
The Community
In our class, we have learned a tremendous amount about technology, why it’s so good for our students and how we can and must integrate it into our classrooms and our lessons. We learned about such great Web 2.0 tools such as Wiki's, Podcasts, Google Docs etc. In my last blog I talked about my Technology Integrating Plan, where I weaved technology throughout my entire lesson. While creating this lesson I learned about even more tools that worked so well throughout the lesson. I have been thinking a great deal about how to incorporate these tools within the classroom and it made me think about how schools can use them for the adults in the building. Are there ways that these technologies can benefit the faculty in the schools? I then saw that Schrum and Levin dedicated an entire chapter in their book about such a thing. Web 2.0 tools are a wonderful ways for leaders to communicate to the faculty. Of course the district's website can help communicate valuable information to the staff and parents, but web 2.0 tools can go beyond this. Just think how useful a community blog could be. How great if a principal could relay school happenings in a weekly blog. Parents and teachers could have the opportunity to comment on blog posts and asks questions. Teachers can also use blogs to communicate with parents and family member about specific things that are happening in their classrooms. They could post pictures and videos so that grandparents and other family member can feel a part of classroom actives. Wiki sites could also be open forums of communications. Because, all users have opportunities to edit wiki sites, this could be a wonderful place for discussion posts. This could also be a place where each grade level can leave important info about their grades and the school could develop a calendar that different groups could edit. These type of tools could help create a school wide community and help truly incorporate parents into the schools.
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The community blog will be a great resource to everyone. This will connect families, students, teachers, administrators, and other community members. Everyone can post suggestions, comments, questions and resources. I think the blog should be setup almost like a website. There should be specific sections for different topics. For example there should be sections that show school pictures another section for questions or concerns, another section about school newsfeed, etc. A blog can become overwhelming if there is no organization. The use of a Google calendar is great! Also, the use of glogster is good because everyone can post “postits” on a poster. This creates an interactive community. Overall, a community blog is a wonderful idea it just needs to be organized and informative.
ReplyDeleteThe community blog will be a great resource to everyone. This will connect families, students, teachers, administrators, and other community members. Everyone can post suggestions, comments, questions and resources. I think the blog should be setup almost like a website. There should be specific sections for different topics. For example there should be sections that show school pictures another section for questions or concerns, another section about school newsfeed, etc. A blog can become overwhelming if there is no organization. The use of a Google calendar is great! Also, the use of glogster is good because everyone can post “postits” on a poster. This creates an interactive community. Overall, a community blog is a wonderful idea it just needs to be organized and informative.
ReplyDeleteJennifer H.
Becca,
ReplyDeleteI think your idea about a school blog is great! It is a forum for all, teachers, parents, administrator and students to communicate. It can really bring a community together and give a sense of belonging. I like that pictures can be posted. I like Jennifer’s idea about having a different section for topics and pictures. I never thought about different sections, but I guess that is like a “new post” for each topic when the blog is set up. With all that would be involved and to make sure that things are updated, someone would definitely need to overlook it.
I really like your ideas, especially the one about teachers blogging with the parents and families of his/her students. It can be so frustrating trying to set up times to meet with parents to discuss things that are happening in school and no matter how much you try it is impossible to get all the parents in one room at the same time. Having a blog written by the teacher accessible to guardians relieves everyone of this stress. It also is a great way to keep parents up to date with what their children are doing in school. Blogging, because it allows us to respond so instantaneously, will give parents the opportunity to share concerns or questions quickly and when they have them instead of making them wait till they can make an appointment with the teacher. Blogging could really open up the communication between teachers and guardians, which is so important to students learning.
ReplyDeleteRebecca,
ReplyDeleteI also think this is great way to foster communication between administration, faculty, parents and students. Another benefit is that as teachers and administrators begin to use these tools for themselves, it will also allow them to see how beneficial it is for students to be using the same tools. Richardson discusses that the best way to learn about technology and the ways to incorporate it into the classroom is for the teachers and administrators to use it for themselves. For districts that are able to incorporate blogging, I think they should definitely do so.