As a teacher you know in your bones what works in your classes. I have felt for years that technological literacy is vital to the future success of my high school English students. As such, we have been blogging on various sites for several years and, although they participated because it was required, it never took off; conversations were stilted and mechanical. I also teach online with two colleges and know that the writing skills requisite for online communication will be valuable to all of them in higher education and the work force. Plus, using social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter is the way modern students communicate via their PCs or cell phones and I really wanted to find a better way to incorporate that with language and writing.
Two years ago, I read about the classroom use of ww.Ning.com in NEA Today magazine (Walker, T. Turning the page: Students live in a digital world. Are schools ready to join them? NEA Today, October/ November 2009) and I was intrigued. In a matter of a short while, I had created a Ning social network for my students (www.englishlitexplorers.ning.com), it's private, and invitation only to protect my students from outside influences. I am the only teacher in a district of almost 1000 educators to ask for a site like this for use with students. A great many of my students were excited and signing on from home and school, responding to my discussion prompts, and creating content of their own! Something potentially great was happening here. I could feel it in my bones. I'm not the only one who thinks so, as of 2010, Pearson Education is funding my site with a very generous grant.
The site is in its third year now. I have required all of my 10th, 11th and 12th graders to logging on regularly. It is a required part of my courses, to substantively post at least ten times per marking period. It is growing into a vital, engaging extension of my classroom. Yes, the kids are discussing literature with each other, which was my main focus at the beginning (reader's response journals gone live), but they are also discussing politics, college applications, cell phone use, the effects of super corporations like Wal-Mart on the world economy, the job search dilemma, favorite bands and sharing pictures of their pets. The topic and nature of their content is limitless and they are really respectfully communicating with each other.
Besides, adolescent driven content, it serves us academically is a myriad of ways. We have uploaded videos of students' in-class speech presentations and debates to set up evaluative discussion groups, used the forum features to set up research groups for student learning teams to communicate and share information outside of class, set up a special forum, "Voices from the Inside," for "visiting" professionals who are leading discussions about different careers and educational paths, and even peer editing and homework help. Former students are leading discussions about what it's really like to go to college; one local commuter student, one SUNY student living in a dorm and one student who is away out of state in Ohio. Each young woman offers a fresh, personal, real-time glimpse of campus life. Invaluable information and active engagement: my students are getting this without ever leaving their homes. I've taken our English class into their homes, smart phones, computers, and into their thoughts. I've made my class a true extension of their lives and have seen a measurable improvement in their on-line writing ability, which definitely translates into better writing overall.
I am very excited about this especially when I read my students' writing and hear them discussing what's happening online on Ning, and I can feel in my bones that this is limitless in possibilities. I wonder where this takes will take us next.
No comments:
Post a Comment