Using+Technology+in+the+Classroom

== As educators, it is vitally important to know the world our students live in and to be able to use that world to motivate and engage struggling readers and writers with high-quality instruction. The point is not to “teach with technology,” but to use technology to convey content more powerfully and efficiently. ==

Why?

 * 1) Our students are readers and writers. They produce and consume email messages, text messages, instant messages, tweets, feeds, youtube videos, and more, but they don't see themselves as readers and writers. Often, struggling readers and writers often have low academic self-esteem and negative attitudes and perceptions toward school-based literacy tasks. By using the new literacies that students are already immersed in, teachers can motivate and engage students to read and write to learn and to think critically about the world around them.
 * 2) Literacy demands are changing. The written word is becoming more, not less, important in our digital world (Wilber, 2010). In the workplace, most writing is done with technology--not many people sit at a desk and write on paper anymore. We need to provide students with authentic and real-world reading and writing experiences.Today's students need to be prepared to construct meaning from both linear and non-linear texts. We’re living in an information overload society with a culture of immediacy, but in what Lankshear and Knobel (2006) have termed an “attention economy.” Students can find information, but they don't evaluate, synthesize, and analyze it in ways we want them to.
 * 3) With a blog, wiki, or social networking site, student work is all in one place (text, pictures, videos, feedback, maps, links, audio, etc.); it is accessible to you and to them at any time; and it is visible to other students and teachers. Student work can also be visible to the public if you choose.

How?
Blogs, Wikis, and Social Networking sites can be used in many different ways for support curriculum and instruction:
 * to discuss readings
 * to respond to writing prompts
 * to communicate with students, parents, teachers, and community members.
 * to access expectations, notes, class news, and assignments.
 * to workshop student writing
 * to make all parts of the writing process visible
 * as a fieldtrip log
 * as a fieldwork notebook
 * for student reflection
 * for group project work
 * to store class materials like research materials and readings.

Helpful Online Blogs in Education:
http://areallydifferentplace.org/ is the Broken Arrow Enhanced Learning Center blog. Their classroom blog is a forum for both students and teachers to discuss books, writing assignments, movies and plays. Each student can start their own personal blog in addition to contributing to the whole class discussions. Personal blog listings can be found on the left-hand column of the home page.

www.**blogger.com** is a free blog-publishing tool with a range of options for creating multiple author blogs. It includes a host of privacy settings, and the ability to moderate comments. Blogger is a great tool for creating a blog in which all members of your class can upload and contribute text and media. All of these attributes make this blogging platform ideal for a private or public classroom format. There are several options for personalizing the look of the blog (movies things around), but Drawbacks: few options for changing the basic layout. Sounds perfect for our age group. Applications and widgets options are unlimited because the platform allows them to be added from alternative sites.

Helpful Online Wikis in Education:
http://budtheteacher.com/wiki/ is a very content-rich wiki. The wiki is overflowing with resources and links to other educators' blogs and wikis.

http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers is a wiki about blogging. It's basically a "how-to" manually on educational blogging. This site can help you choose the right blogging platform for you and your students and get you started.

More reasons to consider blogging in the classroom:
 * 1) **It gives your students an authentic purpose to write.** The idea that their stories will be published online for the world to see may motivate them to do their best.
 * 2) **Students have a real goal in sight when using the writing process.** Not everything needs to be revised, edited, and published, but because this work will be on public display, there’s greater incentive to polish the work.
 * 3) **It allows your students to share their work with family members around the world.** (And if the __ student work is translated into their first language __, it allows dear old grandma who lives overseas and doesn’t speak English the opportunity to celebrate in your students’ success.)
 * 4) **It provides a way to create and explore media texts as a natural extension of the writing process.** Instead of just publishing your good copies on your school bulletin board, why not publish your good copies online. Your students may even get feedback and comments from people in cyberspace. (You can even set up your class blog so that it shows __ [|where in the world your comments are coming from] __.)
 * 5) **It introduces your students to a new genre and form.** Blog posts typically use __ short sentences and short paragraphs __ to pre-digest the content in this channel-changing world.
 * 6) **It may inspire some of your student to blog themselves and encourage them to see themselves as writers.**

There are, of course, security, privacy, and copyright issues to consider, but done correctly, blogging in the classroom can provide a modern way to engage your students.