As a warm up to my post, I wanted to show an icebreaker video about the blogging experience.
Please see Mena Trott's TED talk about individuals blogging for varied reasons with diverse outcomes.
Mena's TED Comments
- Blogging for information sharing
- Blogging to initiate cyber attacks
- Blogging to earn economic independence
- Blogging as personal storytelling
- Blogging as life record-keeping
- Blogging for global outreach
- Blogging for time capture | visual cueing
- Blogging to establish meaningful relationships
- Blogging to change one's life
Hi Aja,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you have experience with blogs – your page looks great! I enjoyed the video you posted about Mena Trott’s blogging. There are so many great uses for blogs! Before this class, I only thought of a blog as a personal diary of sorts as I've only read a few blogs my friends have posted. Now my mind is slowly opening to the endless possibilities of blogging. People are so creative! I think that’s another pro of the blog for the adult learner. The message board is a great tool for class, but it’s fun to see everyone’s personalities really come to life with a blog. I have never been accused of being creative, but I believe it’s such an important quality to have – I’m glad I am being forced to at least try to be creative by incorporating blogs and wiki’s into assignments. I would also like to mention that I do believe that having 24/7 accessibility to blogs is a pro, but there is always the consideration for those who do not have easy access to the internet. Merriam, Cafarella & Baumgartner (2007) report that access to online programs is more available to richer people as poorer people don’t have the technology. Overall, your comments were well thought, I enjoyed your video, I thought your pro/con table was well-done and the pictures you included were meaningful to your written thoughts. Great job!
Merriam, S.B., Caffarella, R.S., & Baumgartner, L.M., (2007). Learning in Adulthood. (3rd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
HI Karyn:
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your return comments; I really appreciate it. Yes, I have some experience in creating a blog. I did my first blog in fall 2010, so I am familiar with a lot of the blogging functionalities. It is the creative domain that I like about blogging. Specifically, in reading, reflecting, and commenting on the content material of a course, I like to draw upon various elements to support the learning and retention of: segmentation of ideas; visual/audio modalities; tables/matrices; and supplemental peer-reviewed articles.
Your comments about the digital divide are right on the mark. This is a serious problem in the United States.
Please see data excerpt from Pew Research Center:
Teachers of the lowest income students experience the impact of digital tools in the learning environment differently than teachers whose students are from more affluent households
Advance Placement and National Writing Project teachers’ experiences with using digital tools in their teaching vary in some notable ways depending on the socioeconomic status of the students they teach. Among these findings:
70% of teachers working in the highest income areas say their school does a “good job” providing teachers the resources and support they need to incorporate digital tools in the classroom, compared with 50% of teachers working in the lowest income areas
73% of teachers of high income students receive formal training in this area, compared with 60% of teachers of low income students
56% of teachers of students from higher income households say they or their students use tablet computers in the learning process, compared with 37% of teachers of the lowest income students
55% of teachers of higher income students say they or their students use e-readers in the classroom, compared with 41% teaching in low income areas
52% of teachers of upper and upper-middle income students say their students use cell phones to look up information in class, compared with 35% of teachers of the lowest income students
39% of AP and NWP teachers of low income students say their school is “behind the curve” when it comes to effectively using digital tools in the learning process; just 15% of teachers of higher income students rate their schools poorly in this area
56% of teachers of the lowest income students say that a lack of resources among students to access digital technologies is a “major challenge” to incorporating more digital tools into their teaching; 21% of teachers of the highest income students report that problem
49% of teachers of students living in low income households say their school’s use of internet filters has a major impact on their teaching, compared with 24% of those who teach better off students who say that
33% of teachers of lower income students say their school’s rules about classroom cell phone use by students have a major impact on their teaching, compared with 15% of those who teach students from the highest income households(Purcell, Heaps, Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013).
References
Purcell, K., Heaps, A., Buchanan, J., & Friedrich, L. (2013, February 28). How teachers are using technology at home and in their classrooms. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teachers-and-technology/Summary-of-Findings.aspx