Old habits

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postsI am trialling the App Posts for the first time.  (I know it is probably not new, but it is to me).  I have a natural tendency to revert to my MacBook Pro or desktop when I compose posts but thought I would take this App for a spin.  First impressions are good.  I like the interface, the preview of posts and comments.  Placing the image (a screenshot) was straightforward and speedy.

I am encouraged to keep going and believe that students would find this a great way to post.

At the same time, I decided (due to an upgrade glitch) to alter the theme I have been using for many years.  On the recommendation of @suewaters of Edublogs I investigated some Mobile friendly themes.  More and more I see the necessity for this as we access our sites from mobile devices.  So I will see how this goes.  I prefer to set a theme and stick with it as it is the ‘branding’ of my professional space but change is good too !

Jump on board

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As I browse Twitter and read blogs I am inspired and amazed by the enthusiastic members of the teaching profession who take the time to share their feelings, knowledge and skills.  I know there are wonderful teachers who do not appear in my Twitterstream or RSS feeds, but I am struck by those that do.   I realise that the ‘on-line’ world is not familiar to everyone, confidence and interests vary from person to person.   People make their own personal decisions about how to spend their time.   Many wonderful words of wisdom cross the staffroom tables everywhere, and wonderful things happen in every classroom.  But the world has changed, teaching is no longer private.     It is common place for staff to observe  each other, work collaboratively, share challenges and successes.  Different school communities make this happen in different ways but I notice it IS happening everywhere to some degree.  Our school world must mirror the world that our students inhabit when they walk out the school gate.   Teachers being involved in connecting and communicating is a vital cog in the wheel.  

Anyone who knows me, will know that I am far more introverted than extrovert.  This has not stopped me from feeling quite comfortable in an on-line professional world.   In fact, it is probably why I enjoy this learning style – I can lurk, browse and choose to contribute when I feel I have something to add.   At a face-to-face meeting with strangers, I will not be the quickest one to add my 2c worth to a discussion.  Although, I am developing confidence as I become more passionate and experienced on some subjects.

Every teacher I know has something to add to the conversation, how can we make those more reticent feel more enthusiastic to join in? I know that writing a blog post is not the way some people reflect (although I heartily recommend it), but I believe everyone could benefit from joining in, even if it is by simply reading and adding odd comments.   In a world, where we are encouraging, if not requiring our students to become more overtly reflective learners, I believe teachers can benefit from this too!

I don’t think it is going too far to suggest, that teachers who do not pursue some form of connection, further education/stimulus, awareness raising or self directed inquiry learning are doing themselves and their students a disservice.  The level of that involvement will naturally vary according to interest and time.   The time element is often the excuse, but when I see the involvement of those I follow and read I think, “If they can do it….”

As discussed in previous posts, Twitter is a tool that takes time to learn and master, but I think you will have resounding agreement if you ask teachers who have taken the time about the benefits.    Blogging, similarly can take time, time to develop a core library of relevant writers, time to feel confident to post your thoughts.

How do we convince those not yet convinced to jump on board?  I get frustrated that it is all here and could be much richer with an even wider contributing audience.  I prepared this graphic a while ago for another purpose but it summarises the benefits I receive from my involvement in an online network.

Student Blogging Challenge Take 3

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Last year, approximately 40 of our senior primary students voluntarily accepted to take part in the Student Blogging Challenge.  As with any venture, there were mixed reactions.  Not all completed the tasks, but they all learned something.   There were a few highlights where blogging  ‘clicked’ with some as a medium of choice and these students have gone on to be regular bloggers (even on their holidays).   On the whole, it was wonderful.

The 2013 Student Blogging challenge is about to begin and I am happy to say the baton is being passed on beautifully.  I have asked our ‘experienced’ blogger to mentor their new classmates and it has been so wonderful to watch the skills being passed on and enthusiasm transmitted.  Here, a comment from one of our new mentors commenting on the blog of  his younger classmate.    I love the  mixture of warm and cool feedback and caring style from this Year 6 boy!

I believe the success of this program can be attributed to a few things:

  • a culture of blogging – these students have seen blogging modelled by their teachers through class blogging for a few years now
  • gradual build up of skills – our students began their personal blogging with KidBlogs – simple, no frills blogs.
  • support from each other – teaching and modelling appropriate academic commenting skills is a vital aspect of blogging.  Without the interaction with readers that comments provide, blogging can tend to feel dull.   Our staff and students regularly support each other with comments.  Staff also use Twitter to broadcast blogs for further publicity.
  • blogging being embedded within classroom practice.  Staff provide regular opportunities for blog posts to be part of their writing activities, often using them to elicit responses and broaden their learning from experts.

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, says ‘Student blogging is not a project, but a process. We are continuously striving to refine, improve and re-evaluate’.  As Silvia says, these students are learning to write in digital spaces- an important skill in my opinion.

Should the [Publish] button be replaced by [Share] ?

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Trying to catch up with the ETMOOC recordings and listening in on Dean Shareski’s session on Sharing=Accountability.   Much is resonating with me and I am seeing connections to my experience.  I think over the past few years I have accepted or found a need and interest in sharing what I learn.

Dean made a point about some re-thinking about the concept of publishing.  

“The [Publish] button should be replaced by [Share]”.  

 I have had a discussion recently about publishing student work on their blogs. Should we publish only ‘perfect, final drafts’ error free or should we allow their first efforts to be seen?  It became obvious to me – that we need to re-define [Publishing] and Dean’s [Share] option sits well.

Previously when we published it was our finished product, the result of a writing and editing process.  This was necessary and preferred as the printed results were set in stone (all-be-it ink in paper) .  Web 2 has altered the way we can go through the editing process, we can now [share] our unfinished thoughts, elicit feedback and constantly edit and re-edit.  

Clicking [Publish] does not mean we are finished working, finished thinking but simply exposing our process. Whereas, publishing, once referred to the final process in an exhaustive editing process.  

This brings me back to my previous post about why people shy away from blogging.  Our expectation that what we publish is perfect.  There is a concern amongst teachers of young students that we are weakening the conventions if we allow less than perfect writing to be published, that we are modelling poorly and I can understand that, but I feel that  the benefits of exposing our first attempts and our process  outweigh this risk.   Some re-thinking about how we view what we read on-line, how we evaluate it and what we expect of it may be required.  What do you think?