What are your early impressions of using a blog and what was your experience using an RSS Reader this week? Any surprises, pleasant or otherwise?
Well, this is my first time for using both a blog and a RSS Reader. Setting up my blog was fairly simple. The hardest part was actually posting it. After I read the table of contents for week 2 on the left side I felt relief… so that’s how you post it. I actually did the whole thing by myself. :-) I consider this a good start for a non-techie. The RSS Reader wasn’t hard to set up, once I found sites that had the RSS feed symbol. Most of the sites I went to were sites where the information isn’t updated very often. The one thing that I was surprised about was how fast everything started being added to my selected reader sites. I’ve found it difficult to read everything. I ended up scanning a lot and reading a little. I’m not really sure how to use it with students, yet. I’m sure that will come as this class progresses.
Well, this is my first time for using both a blog and a RSS Reader. Setting up my blog was fairly simple. The hardest part was actually posting it. After I read the table of contents for week 2 on the left side I felt relief… so that’s how you post it. I actually did the whole thing by myself. :-) I consider this a good start for a non-techie. The RSS Reader wasn’t hard to set up, once I found sites that had the RSS feed symbol. Most of the sites I went to were sites where the information isn’t updated very often. The one thing that I was surprised about was how fast everything started being added to my selected reader sites. I’ve found it difficult to read everything. I ended up scanning a lot and reading a little. I’m not really sure how to use it with students, yet. I’m sure that will come as this class progresses.
Which part(s) of Dale's Cone do you think each tool (Blog, RSS) lends itself best to and why?
I think demonstrations, recordings/radio/still pictures, visual symbols and verbal symbols fit blogs well. A blog creator, and/or contributor, can add video, pictures, etc. to show how to make a crêpe. Visitors to the blog can then post questions/comments/recipes, etc. Recordings/radio/still pictures are easy (I assume) to add to a blog and can connect “pen pals” from different schools fairly easily. Blogs are full of verbal and visual symbols for even the most elementary users to enjoy.
RSS works with visual and verbal symbols as they are primarily news/information updates. Still pictures are also included in this. Students can read the latest news from Paris on a variety of topics, then dissect it through links, definitions (maybe a class wikipedia), grammar Q&A, etc.
Considering Siegel’s concept of "computer imagination", what do you think would be at least one "imaginative" educational use of each tool (blog, RSS) that takes advantage of each tool’s inherent strengths? That is, what do you think you and/or your students could use these tools for that they might not be able to do with other more simple or low-tech tools? Or, as Postman might ask, what is a problem to which each of these tools is an answer?
Blogs could be used to expose students to real language. Not the kind they read in texts or see in educational language videos but, rather real, as native people actually use it, every-day language. Students could be assigned a reading (Blog X) in which they then could add questions, definitions, links, etc. to a class blog to help each other understand what they’ve been reading on Blog X. Students could also be assigned a writing assignment on French Class Blog Y to contribute comments, in either the target language or native language, regarding the latest chapter of “The Little Prince”. Students could have various assignments; links to define terms, add clip art to help define terms, explain certain grammatical structures, etc. For students who don’t have Internet access at home, many schools have Internet available for individual and class work. Readers could also be used to expose students to written, published language. They could add comments or summaries of certain articles, defining terms, creating links, or explaining grammar on their own, or class, blog afterward.
The problem is that language textbooks quickly become outdated, teachers don’t always know the latest “X”, paper copies of foreign newspapers and/or magazines are cost prohibitive for many people, especially a whole class. Having students subscribe to newspaper RSS’s (Le Figaro or Le Monde) allows them to find out about a wide range of up-to-date topics. Blogs allow teachers to assess all students, not just the ones who repeatedly raise their hands in class to volunteer comments or answers.
Of course I couldn’t use any of this where I currently teach. No computers with Internet access for students, many students without Internet access at home, younger students who don’t know enough of French to navigate Readers yet.
I think this is appropriate for this paper about Dale’s Cone— “Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand”.—Confucius. This class is an ‘involve me’ experience, over and over and over.
