Pre-course activity
Pre-course activities will introduce you to the world of blogging and why it is seen to be useful in supporting learners to make contributions and share their ideas and knowledge when working on suitable learning tasks. The activities will be addressed by the course facilitator at the beginning of the face-to-face session.
Activity 1 An example of a resource sharing blog
The objectives of this course activity are to:
- examine a blog written to demonstrate and share resources with teachers
- browse the resources and identify any that might be useful to you in your teaching.
Go to The Free Technology for Teachers [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] website where you will find a blog that has been written by Richard Byrne, an American teacher. He has created this blog to provide up to date information about open source software that may have value in the classroom. Several Google tools feature in his overview. This blog is award-winning – it won the Best Resource Sharing category in the 2008 and 2009 Edublogs Awards. Blogging is an effective way of resource sharing, as this example demonstrates. Explore this blog and follow any links that might be of interest to you. Reflect on whether you could see the value of creating a resource sharing blog for your learners, or even for the wider school or college you work in. Creating a blog that is linked to a classroom project where learners could add resources or links they have come across might be one way in which learners are encouraged to contribute. Make note of any ideas you might have for a resource sharing blog.
Activity 2 An example of a school’s Modern Foreign Languages blog
The objectives of this course activity are to:
- see an example of a school’s blog dedicated to Modern Foreign Languages
- see the different content that can be uploaded and added to a blog and reflect on whether this type of blog could be useful in your classroom.
Go to this UK secondary school blog All Saints Languages Blog which has been created by teacher Suzi Bewell. This is a subject-specific blog that has been created using Typepad blogging software (you will be shown this software in the face to face session). This blog uses a wide variety of media, including video, examples of students’ work and useful links to other resources. Browse the blog and reflect on the way this is presented, the type of content featured and the many links, gadgets and widgets used on the site. Make notes as you browse thinking about whether your learners could contribute to a similar blogging space, what topic you might focus on and what resources or links you may already know of that could be included.
Introduction