EdTechTeacher Question and Answer
In this section we present questions and answers on various issues regarding educational technology. We invite you to contribute by contacting us with a question of your own!

What is the best way to use blogs?

Blogging provides creative opportunities for active learning and students can use their blogs to discuss, analyze, and reflect on what they are reading and learning. Students enjoy writing about topics that interest them the most, and teachers can use blogs not only to interact with students beyond the classroom but also to learn more about them.

Blogging works best in an environment where the teacher is not afraid to act as a facilitator who allows students to learn from each other. Blogging is most effective when students evaluate, discuss, and challenge each other’s thinking and come to revise their own understanding of a topic.

If blogging is presented as a peripheral activity, with little or no direct connection to your class goals, it will be of limited effectiveness. Likewise, if blogging is a sporadic homework activity, students may question its importance and utility. So think beyond that first blogging assignment and plan out several regularly scheduled blogging assignments with clear goals and an assessment strategy.

Many bloggers—teachers or otherwise—start with a flurry of posts and then stop blogging; plan to post regularly, even if it’s just every two weeks. Also, do not underestimate initial student anxiety (and perhaps skepticism) about the process. While many students will likely embrace the innovation that blogging represents—some probably blog themselves—they may be unclear and unsure of how to express themselves in this new academic milieu.

Finally, avoid any temptation to assign formal grades on individual student posts and instead consider adopting a broad "effort and participation" grade for a series of posts. Blogging is a means of self expression and is informal in nature. Slapping a formal grade on a student's attempt to express his or her own opinions may send the wrong message and inhibit, not promote, self expression.

What is the best way to use a wiki?

A wiki is essentially a Web site that anyone can edit, making it the perfect tool to enable teams and classes to write together. Students, teachers, and even parents can collaborate to gather, edit, and present information. A wiki is a great option if you want to create a space where students can collaborate on a project or series of projects. Have students work collaboratively to construct a poem, write a short study, or revise an essay or lab. Invite students from other schools and build a culture of collaboration and community.

Wikis are great for aggregating student and teacher class notes. For Tom’s U.S. History class wiki, students take turns posting their homework assignments and use a variety of formats, including Inspiration concept maps. Tom also provides links to other resources, like study guides and online quizzes that he has created. Tom uses his classroom wiki to create a set of collaborative notes for students to consult when writing essays or preparing for tests.

How can I use iPods in my class?

First, realize that the iPod is more than a playback device and can serve as a convenient audio recorder. So, you can use iPods for both its playback and recording capabilities. To record audio with the iPod you simply need to attach an iPod-compatible microphone, such as Griffin's iTalk or Belkin's TuneTalk. The key to any successful iPod activity, however, is maximizing its portability and ease of use.

Tomoko Graham, a Japanese language teacher at the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts, created a video-based activity that cleverly takes advantage of the iPod’s portability. She loaded video of Japanese cooking onto iPods and gave them for students to take home. Students then cooked the meal they watched in the video. The portability of the iPods made it easy for students to move around their own kitchen to grab ingredients and cook the meal while simultaneously watching the video. Mark Sheeran, a French teacher at the Noble and Greenough School, has been using video iPods in his final exam for years. The
first part of Mr. Sheeran’s assessment focuses on the auditory component: he
records mp3 sound files that are downloaded onto the iPods, and students write
down answers to questions. The next two components involve video. First,
students watch flashcards of vocabulary terms that they are then required to
identify. Next, students watch a short movie clip on the iPod from which the
sound has been deleted. The students are then asked to write a script of what
they imagine the dialogue to be.

Tom uses iPods as part of an oral history project His students interview
their parents about their experiences during the 1970s and ’80s. Tom also brought iPods into his U.S. History final exam last spring. He had students watch and analyze historical clips as part of a "Document Based Essay" (DBQ) For Tom it made perfect sense for his students to examine multimedia footage from the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War since so many Americans experienced these events through their television sets.

Should I grade online?

If you want to save an enormous amount of time writing comments on essays and reports, then, yes, you should grade online! Don’t you wish you had a dollar for every time you typed, “this sentence is too vague,” or “you need more details here?” Well, when Tom types "s4 " in Microsoft Word the following appears: "You have not provided adequate supporting evidence to bolster your arguments in this paragraph, nor in the remainder of the document." Using Word's AutoCorrect program he is able to make twenty of his most common comments appear in a flash. In AutoCorrect, look for the windows that say Replace and With. Put the offending spelling in the Replace box and the correct spelling in the With box, and click OK. From then on, Word will make the change for you!

By grading online you will also have a permanent record of your students work, and your comments, that you can pull up weeks or months later to help you write semester grade reports and the like. You will be able to cite specifics from student work and your comments. No more trying to remember what that student wrote on her paper weeks ago and what you wrote on her paper!