Friday 17 June 2011

What do my Year 9's think of blogging?

I did a quick survey of my students to find out what they thought about the use of blogs in the classroom based on their limited use of their class blog http://www.findinganswersyear9.blogspot.com/

Question 1: Do you think using a blog is a useful learning tool?
A Yes it is excellent
B Yes it is good
C It's ok
D No I don't like using it

100% chose B

Question 2: Now that you have used a blog which of the following do you think a blog would be most useful for?
A Posting assignment/task work instead of working in books or word processing. Teacher can then draft work on the blog and provide feedback.
B Working on group tasks - sharing information and commenting on each others work. Working as a group to solve problems.
C Posting work so that another class/teacher can give their comments and feedback.
D A combination of the above.
E I don't think it is useful at all.

12.5% chose A, 12.5% chose B, 75% chose D

So based on their limited experience the year 9 students seem to be very positive about the use of blogs in the classroom.
However they are not using the blog yet in a genuinely collaborative way which is how I intend them to use it. They have made attempts at being collaborative but not in an independent way. Hopefully this collaboration will increase as their experience grows.

Thursday 9 June 2011

How to create a blog

My Year 9 Blog

The students have finally got some posts up on our class blog - findinganswersyear9.blogspot.com. The question that students had to research was what is the weirdest sea creature? They each had to find a creature and post a picture and some writing. They are now going to pair up and find out something new about their partners creature and post it in the comment section. Hopefully this can encourage and foster some collaborative skills. In time the aim will be to start generating questions/problems relating to topics students are studying in different subject areas. The students would love for other PBAS staff (and anyone else) to visit their site and leave comments under their posts. Anyone can leave a post - just select 'Anonymous' in the drop down menu after you click on 'comments'. You can leave your name in the comment if you want the student to know who left the comment.