Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thing 3 - My thoughts
I am trying to use Blackboard with my students in a book club right now. It is not working as well as I hoped even though half of them come in and jump right on the computers. Using a blog might be simpler for them to do and might help them participate more. The fact that the blog allows me to monitor posts before everyone sees it is a plus. If I were using the blog in that way, I also like that I can set an email to notify me when posts occur, since I am in my email checking that. I would also like to see the students use a blog for things like the daily announcements. Students are always telling me that they cannot hear the announcements because their teachers don't require them to be quiet. I think it would also help improve their writing skills.
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2 comments:
I definitely agree with you about students' writing skills. How can they not improve???
I also want you to know that I think you'll really like wikis when we get to them. I think they're awesome for book clubs because they can serve as an easy to use online discussion board. And by easy, I mean EASY--for students and educators.
I agree with you about BlackBoard. I've had to use it in a couple of online graduate courses, and it took a while to really get the hang of it. I can see where a blog would be easier for the students to use, and enabling the setting that allows you to read the postings before they go up for everyone else sees them would be a definite advantage, both in terms of appropriate postings & in being able to assist students with their writing/spelling/etc. before they "go public". That, to me as a Special Ed. teacher, would be a big concern. Many of my students with learning disabilities would be reluctant to post their writing where their classmates could potentially see their mistakes (and would rather take the "0" than set themselves up for embarrassment!). They might, however, be more likely to post if they knew that the teacher could read their postings & coach them through the editing process before their classmates saw what they wrote!
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