Notice: Window to the Edublogger World

I was looking at the e-Learning Blog by Julie Lindsay and learned about an online conference. I wish I could do it, but I'm unavailable all day. I'll be out there living life, but I'll wish I had computer access. I'll just have to catch up with the trails left online. I also found an Edubloggerworld wiki and got access to make entries on the wiki. There is also a tagging standard set up for the conference. I'll probably make an entry the night before although you're supposed to create the entry on August 23. So check out Julie's link above for more information.

I'm getting close to the start of school and can't wait to put some new things into action. I've seen how much kids who use MySpace love surveys. So...I signed up for a free account at surveymonkey. I'll start the computer class off with a survey for grades five to eight. We'll use the data for creating charts to display on the walls. It'll make a quick display in time for Back to School night. I'll probably lead the math class to creating their own survey at some point during the first three weeks of school.

I'm still working through the final details on how I'm going to present the wiki and blogging to the sixth grade math class. All I know is that I want to use it for the kids to discuss math (blog) and keep track of the contents of each class (wiki). I read somewhere on Darren Kuropatwa's blog for his studen'ts about how many exposures it takes to really learn something. I'm hoping to give the students two extra avenues to reflect, review, and learn our math concepts. I also want it to be more than an electronic version of a paper activity. I want to reach the higher levels of learning on the continuum and look forward to getting them to think on a level that is higher than recall of facts.

Finally, I keep going over and over where I want to take the wikis in computer class. Last year, I almost used them as a survey machine. It got the kids used to editing the wiki. This year, I will probably have them collaborate with a "sister" class. In at least fifth, sixth, and seventh, there are two of each class. I'll be able to have them collaborate on the same topic. In this way, I can get them to use the discussion feature. I'm still deciding on the topics, but I want to generate analysis and the creation of something new. So, I keep searching for ideas on the web and thinking.