September 5, 2015 - 22:05
Students, please use the comments section of this post to complete the assignment for class. As explained in the syllabus:
Level 1 - If you’re completely new to blogging and reading blogs: Find a blog post that talks about technology, innovation, and/or education in ways that feel exciting, important, and meaningful to you. Post it in Serendip Studio and explain why you chose it.
Level 2 - If you’re not a blogger but you are a blog reader:Choose one of your favorite blogs that talks about technology, innovation, education, or another topic you feel is related to this course. Post it in Serendip Studio and explain why you follow/read that blog.
Level 3 - If you’re already a blogger:I want to challenge you to write your own short post (it can just be a bulleted list) of why you blog and share it with the class in Serendip Studio.
Comments
Blogging through New Doors
Submitted by inugent on September 7, 2015 - 22:48 Permalink
The more I think about it, the more I laugh about how I am both new and old to blogging. Truthfully, I have been blogging since my creative writing courses of my freshman year in high school, but it still feels like I'm so new to the trade! Unfortunately, I haven't grown into the groove of blogging independently and using it as a very public diary. However, through the years, developing strong blogging skills has not only made my educational experience so much smoother, but actually began to open up doors for my career.
In high school and college, my blogging abilities have let me climb my way up with online school publications as I had the opportunity to blog about everything from campus fashion to the political climate of Syria. I find it a really personal way to connect to an audience without losing any credibility. It's a very accessible platform and I have actually witnessed one of my co-editors from my high school newspaper become famous as she blogged about her experience as a transitioning transgender woman. She is regularly interviewed by radio programs and prestigious publications about trigger warnings and other issues of political correctness, and all these opportunities have stemmed from her blog being discovered.
Blogging is also just a wonderful way to decompress from what you're going through or what you're learning. For instance, over the summer, blogging about my time with the BiCo-Dalun Summer Action Fellowship really helped me digest my experience from week to week. It was an excellent way to collect my thoughts and breathe. Nothing helps your learning that trying to teach new information to others and I believe my weekly blog cemented so much of the readings and speeches we absorbed this summer.
Finally, through my summer blog and contributions to school blogs, I was able to find and actually land a very cool PR internship over this semester. Organizations and publications actually took my blogging as legitimate career experience. Blogging beyond reblogging Tumblr pictures can be truly powerful in showing people your own voice and how much you can do.
I'm struck by the way
Submitted by alesnick on September 8, 2015 - 21:23 Permalink
I'm struck by the way blogging in your experience has connected you, and others you know, with experiences both internal (reflection, decompression, integration of new knowledge, breathing) and external/public -- new interactions, and roles! I'm excited to learn more about your PR internship! Congratulations :) And I'm also curious about how your comfort with this medium equips you to introduce others to it. A question I have is how you think about audience, when you can't be sure who will come across your blog? How do you decide what tone and discourse to use, and how direct and honest to be?
Blogging About "The Other"
Submitted by smalina on September 8, 2015 - 17:47 Permalink
While searching through the Feminist Teacher blog, I came across this post about the first Gay-Straight Alliance formed in a high school in India, at the Tagore International School:
http://feministteacher.com/2014/02/28/exclusive-first-gsa-in-india-speaks-to-feminist-teacher-ileana-jimenez/#more-1481
Feminist Teacher Ileana Jiménez interviews teachers and administrators involved in starting and supporting the GSA, and speaks with students about their goals and concerns in getting involved. Though I was initially drawn to the article for its content and obvious connection to my field of study, I quickly found myself most interested in the use of the blogging platform to share a significant story with teachers around the world. Indian educators interviewed in the article explain that much of the impetus for the GSA was their perception that American students were much more involved in service efforts in their communities (though there is no research included in the post to back this up). Presumably, this notion was gleaned through the news, social media, and international communication between educators. This article (decked out with an informative, embedded Youtube video) making its way back to educators in the United States completes a productive and sort of beautiful chain of communication, all in the name of bettering marginalized students’ lives at school.
Of course, there are several dangers to this kind of story-sharing—it is all too easy for American bloggers to go the route of condescending and belittling description when talking about educational successes in other, “Third World” countries (“Wow! Can you believe that this underdeveloped, anti-feminist country could pull this off? Good for them!”) To avoid such missteps, the blogger must take on the role of a researcher, and truly commit to finding facts and outside opinions to back up her point—which, I would claim, she does quite successfully. Much of the meat of the post is made up of quotations from the interviews she has conducted, and as a result, the post is both informative and heartwarming.
I appreciate your sensitivity
Submitted by alesnick on September 8, 2015 - 21:31 Permalink
I appreciate your sensitivity to the question of how an American blogger affirms/praises educational success in a distant, often demeaned place. The line comparing US and India's approaches to "service" struck me, too; I am also wrestling with this name for the work. Agree that the interview focus is a useful strategy . . . and yet something here still makes me wonder. I think it's the tone of such clarity and coherence in the piece -- and wondering if blogging somehow encourages this, while it may not always be helpful in intercultural writing. I know Ileana -- so we could ask her!
Youtube in the classroom?
Submitted by arobiolio on September 8, 2015 - 20:03 Permalink
Much of the experience I have had with blogging has (maybe ironically) been in college classes. Several Spanish courses I have taken required weekly blog posts about various readings and class texts, and my Schools in American cities class last semester also involved blog posting to Serendip. In addition to these blogging assignments, in my free time I am an avid follower of two bloggers, one a Youtube beauty “vlogger” who shares hair and makeup tips, the other a cooking and cuisine blogger who releases weekly recipes. I’ve certainly been aware of educational blogging in the past, but have never actively pursued it as a source of information and insight.
Naturally (although maybe I should rethink this instinct considering our recent reading), my first stop to find an education blog was Google. After perusing a few of my search’s top results, I stumbled onto an article from eschoolnews.com listing “10 Education Blogs Worth Following”. I looked into most of the article’s suggest blogs, but one called Edudemic stood out to me. I chose to look into Edudemic because its most recent featured post was all about utilizing Youtube in the classroom, a topic that is highly interesting to me on a personal level.
I’m a TA in Haverford’s Spanish Department, meaning I hold weekly tutorial sessions for beginning Spanish students. The lessons are often dry, textbook exercises touching on grammar and vocabulary. About two weeks into this job last year, I realized how bored students were in my sessions. In response, I started showing music videos of Spanish songs at the end of each session to bring up the energy and give them something to look forward to, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. I began to carefully select songs to match cultural themes or grammatical concepts we were going over that week, and even started to print copies of English and Spanish lyrics for students to follow along. By the end of the year, it was impossible to imagine my TA sessions without the music videos, and it was by far the aspect students most commented on in their course evaluations at the end of the semester. I realized that, while I don't think teachers should rely on Youtube to replace their teaching, it can be a great way to break up a class experience and add some fun! This experience is essentially why I chose “The Teacher’s Guide to Using Youtube in the Classroom” as my blog post. The post itself was concise, informative, and clearly written. I’m actually planning on using a few of its tips in this semester’s TA sessions. Here’s the link in case anyone is interested:
http://www.edudemic.com/youtube-in-classroom/
So cool that you connected
Submitted by alesnick on September 8, 2015 - 21:33 Permalink
So cool that you connected this directly with your own work as a teacher/TA! Awesome. I think the use of music is genius here. Does seeing YouTube discussed in this broader way inform your thinking about the challenges you faced in your own context?
When I initially read this
Submitted by Mia Rybeck (not verified) on September 8, 2015 - 23:45 Permalink
When I initially read this prompt I was thinking I was pretty novice and disconnected from blogs. But when I think about it I totally am a blog reader! I really like reading blogs as part of getting my news. I usually click on them linked from Facebook. Blogs can feel like an exciting new platform for information gathering. I learn a lot about the world from my friends (both in real life and digitally) so the public and easily passed-along nature of blogs is pretty exciting to me.
When I was thinking about looking for a blog on Education and technology I realize I already follow (via Facebook posts, not the actual blog site) one! It was fairly normal at my high school to friend the teachers you were close to on Facebook after graduation. I'm friends with my former teacher Joan Soble who is now retired but was this incredible English teacher and one of a few people who I am infinitely grateful to for investing so much time and energy into me and my writing. Now that she has retired, Ms. Soble writes (and posts to Facebook) a blog about her thoughts on education, retirement, current events, her husband's artwork, etc...which I (and some of her other students I'm sure) read.
In high school, Ms. Soble was the first person who I think really saw me as an individual and a writer and was gonna push me to really grow in an individualized way. She was honest about the gaps I had had in my education on writing so far (there were many) and somehow had this faith in my ability to identify and explain my own ideas. She was endlessly committed to her students and their writing and I think invested as much time in each of her students as she did in me (I don't think I was particularly distinctive in her class, which is kind of an incredible feat of dedication on her part that she could make each of us feel so invested in, pushed, and valued.) All to say, Ms. Soble is someone I am simultaneously very grateful and a bit in awe of though we haven't talked in a year or so. Now that we're not in contact, I like reading her blog when I have time and/or am feeling homesick. I have changed a bit since high school and when I have seen my old teachers it's almost a little weird because I'm no longer the student/person I was in high school and my teacher is now a teacher to many students that are not me. But I love reading Ms. Soble's blog partially because I'm just interested in her thoughts as someone I see as such a great practitioner in Education and I like reading about issues from my home committee, which because she was a teacher in Cambridge for so long she writes about in addition (and sometimes entwined with) broader issues.
http://soalready.blogspot.com/2015/07/finding-ghosts-spirits-and-comrade...
So the first question I have,
Submitted by alesnick on September 12, 2015 - 17:33 Permalink
So the first question I have, or opportunity, or dilemma, is whether to start following Mrs. Sobel on Twitter! Seriously :) And also, this feeling of being honestly connected -- through you, professionally (I used to be a high school English teacher and am still a writing teacher), and through a shared interest in grief as a key facet of human life!
The next question I have is to wonder what you think about the idea that you are actually a seasoned blog reader, and that the ed blog you read is written by a teacher!
And next: I appreciate your statement that you learn a lot from your friends on and off line -- and I wonder how the on and off of that interact, reinforce, contrast, intensify each other?
Blogs
Submitted by Mia Rybeck (not verified) on September 8, 2015 - 23:46 Permalink
When I initially read this prompt I was thinking I was pretty novice and disconnected from blogs. But when I think about it I totally am a blog reader! I really like reading blogs as part of getting my news. I usually click on them linked from Facebook. Blogs can feel like an exciting new platform for information gathering. I learn a lot about the world from my friends (both in real life and digitally) so the public and easily passed-along nature of blogs is pretty exciting to me.
When I was thinking about looking for a blog on Education and technology I realize I already follow (via Facebook posts, not the actual blog site) one! It was fairly normal at my high school to friend the teachers you were close to on Facebook after graduation. I'm friends with my former teacher Joan Soble (Ms. Soble) who is now retired but was this incredible, incredible English teacher and one of a few people who I am infinitely grateful to for investing so much time and energy into me and my writing. Now that she has retired, Ms. Soble writes (and posts to Facebook) a blog about her thoughts on education, retirement, current events, her husband's artwork, etc...which I (and some of her other students I'm sure) read.
In high school, Ms. Soble was the first person who I think really saw me as an individual and a writer and was gonna push me to really grow in an individualized way. She was honest about the gaps I had had in my education on writing so far (there were many) and somehow had this faith in my ability to identify and explain my own ideas. She was endlessly committed to her students and their writing and I think invested as much time in each of her students as she did in me (I don't think I was particularly distinctive in her class, which is kind of an incredible feat of dedication on her part that she could make each of us feel so invested in, pushed, and valued.) All to say, Ms. Soble is someone I am simultaneously very grateful and a bit in awe of though we haven't talked in a year or so. Now that we're not in contact, I like reading her blog when I have time and/or am feeling homesick. I have changed a bit since high school and when I have seen my old teachers it's almost a little weird because I'm no longer the student/person I was in high school and my teacher is now a teacher to many students that are not me. But I love reading Ms. Soble's blog partially because I'm just interested in her thoughts as someone I see as such a great practitioner in Education and I like reading about issues from my home committee, which because she was a teacher in Cambridge for so long she writes about in addition (and sometimes entwined with) broader issues.
http://soalready.blogspot.com/2015/07/finding-ghosts-spirits-and-comrade...
Hands-On Learning
Submitted by Emily (not verified) on September 9, 2015 - 09:10 Permalink
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/hands-on-apps-diverse-learners-matthew-farber
I found this blog very compelling because it placed an emphasis on games and fun as ways to foster student growth and engagement in their own learning. The blog also discussed how game-based learning and "hands-on apps" integrate both "tactile play and digital experience." I thought this was an important point because it acknowledged that there are different types of learning and interactions and that, as educators, we need to realize which types of learning and interacting work best for the students in our classroom. In addition to placing more emphasis on the joys of learning and creating, I think that games in the classroom also help students approach education in modern and refreshing ways. Technology in the classroom can help to remind students that learning can be, and really is, fun.
Blogs
Submitted by Mia Rybeck (not verified) on September 9, 2015 - 12:03 Permalink
When I initially read this prompt I was thinking I was pretty novice and disconnected from blogs. But when I think about it I totally am a blog reader! I really like reading blogs as part of getting my news. I usually click on them linked from Facebook. Blogs can feel like an exciting new platform for information gathering. I learn a lot about the world from my friends (both in real life and digitally) so the public and easily passed-along nature of blogs is pretty exciting to me.
When I was thinking about looking for a blog on Education and technology I realize I already follow (via Facebook posts, not the actual blog site) one! It was fairly normal at my high school to friend the teachers you were close to on Facebook after graduation. I'm friends with my former teacher Joan Soble (Ms. Soble) who is now retired but was this incredible, incredible English teacher and one of a few people who I am infinitely grateful to for investing so much time and energy into me and my writing. Now that she has retired, Ms. Soble writes (and posts to Facebook) a blog about her thoughts on education, retirement, current events, her husband's artwork, etc...which I (and some of her other students I'm sure) read.
In high school, Ms. Soble was the first person who I think really saw me as an individual and a writer and was gonna push me to really grow in an individualized way. She was honest about the gaps I had had in my education on writing so far (there were many) and somehow had this faith in my ability to identify and explain my own ideas. She was endlessly committed to her students and their writing and I think invested as much time in each of her students as she did in me (I think it was kind of an incredible feat of dedication on her part that she could make each of us feel so invested in, pushed, and valued.) All to say, Ms. Soble is someone I am simultaneously very grateful and a bit in awe of though we haven't talked in a year or so. Now that we're not in contact, I like reading her blog when I have time and/or am feeling homesick. I have changed a bit since high school and when I have seen my old teachers it's almost a little weird because I'm no longer the student/person I was in high school and my teacher is now a teacher to many students that are not me. But I love reading Ms. Soble's blog partially because I'm just interested in her thoughts as someone I see as such a great practitioner in Education and also because I like reading about issues from my home committee, which because she was a teacher in Cambridge for so long she writes about in addition (and sometimes entwined with) broader issues.
http://soalready.blogspot.com/2015/07/finding-ghosts-spirits-and-comrade...