Digi Spaces & Young Peeps Online Authoring: Challenges for Teachers

Preface:  As I'm writing this, I need you to understand that my 10 year old stepdaughter is explaining to her father, from her mother's house in Kentucky, how to use facebook to video chat for Father's Day as opposed to their normal Yahoo facilitated method.  
Warning: So, if you're expecting me to say Internet use and multimedia techniques shouldn't be fully blended into learning environments, you're reading the wrong blog.
 

"Classrooms that privilege alphabetic, print based, hard copy texts over electronic, multimedia and online texts are failing to capitlise on their students' expertise and and creating dissonance, as well as perpetuating disadvantage for those teens who are not engaging with new texts outside of school," wrote Rachael Adlington and Diane Hansford in Digital spaces and young people's online authoring: Challenges for teachers.

I think as adults, sometimes we fear letting "mere" kids take credit for knowing something we don't. If they're already using the tools provided to them online, we need to be resourceful too.  Find a way to incorporate what they already know into lessons on what the need to know. (Specifically, I'm referencing the use of blogs in classrooms.) Whether a parent or educator, have you ever heard you should deny a child something to make them more successful? Didn't think so.  And, we choose convenience all the time. It may be a stretch but think about it:

• Pencils with erasers versus feather pen and ink wells.

• Smartboards versus dusty chalkboards.

• Taskstream versus grade books.

*Image information below

Why not incorporate the latest tools, technologies and methods into an already existing lesson plan? Adults have learned to adapt. We just need to adapt to our children sometimes.

I searched for examples of blogs actually created by students at the direction of teachers. The idea is gaining popularity among educators clearly shown by THE EDUBLOG AWARDS.  One student's blog was a perfect example of what
Digital spaces and young people's online authoring: Challenges for teachers emphasized in stating there are three criteria for effective blogs, which they consider are significant for the education sector: 'a strong and clear sense of purpose'...a 'well informed point of view' and 'quality of presentation'.

I found Miriam's Magical Moments to be a great example of combining blogging and learning.

In her entry Mother's Day Surprise, complete with a video, there are
countess examples of lessons learned. A few are listed below. 
Can you think of others as you watch the play and review the blog entry?

• Language arts - punctuation, grammar, vocabulary
• Science - dolphin research
• Fine arts - play writing, musical performance

 

Why is it important for teachers to use digital media to support instruction in school?

• Sight and sound are important in communication. Digital media incorporates both at a higher level.
• Digital media taps into a child's creativity which can increase interest in a project.

What are the differences between writing online and writing in school?

•  Writing in school does not necessarily promote collaboration among students that a blog or wiki entry may promote.
• Writing in school may seem boring to students who are already texting, blogging, sharing videos and creating images.

How should teachers use digital spaces to support writing instruction?

• Teachers should compile a list of technologies students are already using at home to gauge what students are already familiar with using.
• Giving students examples of already completed digital assignments shows students the project is, in fact, doable.

What are some challenges to using digital spaces for writing instruction in schools?

• Limited availability of resources
• Limited time for project completion
• Variance in background knowledge of students (many, but not all, are using digital spaces at home)

In Mrs. Yollis Classroom Blog, the teacher using the online medium to keep families informed.  But, that's really just a nice bonus.  This teacher is incorporating the use of digital technologies to enhance lessons.  A perfect example is portrayed in the blog post Annotated Arrays.  This is awesome. 

• There are moving images students could never get from a text. 
• She incorporates definitions for her class that could be found in a hard dictionary, but not with the moving graphics to emphasize the lesson itself.  
• Then, she incorporated a hand-on activity kids can relate to. Roam the halls and take pictures. It's an easy assignment that requires little prep work. Most kids in your class can snap pictures with their latest smart device.  In this case, it was iPads.
• And, review and sharing information takes on a whole new front when kids can see their final products online nearly immediately. It would take less time to upload images and share than make copies of drawings and hand out to individuals to check out.
• The ease of the project inspired follow up work by students at home.
• When others comment on the class blog, students are introduced to even more views, tidbits and information.

*Image Information
Feather Pen: Doodle style feather quill pen and ink well illustration in vector format
© Lhfgraphic... | Dreamstime.com
Chalkboard: http://gosonja.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ChalkBoard01.jpg
Grade book: http://farm1.staticflickr.com/199/464455787_09d28fea4e_o.jpg