So I did the discussion board activity with my 4th and 5th grade students last week and as promised, I'll give your the run down of how it turned out and what I learned from it. Perhaps this will help you if you choose to do this with your students.
As I had said in my previous post, I had my concerns about a student and her confidence and ability to perform this activity. They were justified. She began typing out her idea, but was really struggling. I encourage them to get help from the student next to them before asking for me. This is to save them waiting time. I've had an eye on the student she asked to help her for the past year because I started seeing some behaviors I didn't like, but I thought she had been making good decisions lately and trusted that she'd help her classmate out. Instead, she urged her to post her unfinished thread on the board, then proceeded to tell others to read it. Fortunately, the other students didn't want to play her game, and I was quickly able to delete the post. Unfortunately, this did upset her and left her crying (something rare with her). I sat with her for a little while and guided her through starting a strong discussion thread. Students responded to her thread positively as she had some good ideas. The consequence to the girl's bullying was this: she received no school money at the end of class, and gave herself a bad image because no one wanted her "help" after she did that. When I saw the other girl's mother after school, I told her about the great job her daughter did in my class. The other girl saw this.
Now as far as the fourth grade is concerned, I didn't take into account the amount of time it would take to model this activity, log into Blackboard (the district messed up a lot of the students' passwords, and I messed up a few of the numbers for their usernames), and how long it would take them to type it up. Only one or two students completed their post during that class session. I have the other fourth and fifth grade classes on Monday and Wednesday of next week. Instead of typing their posts directly onto the discussion board, I will have them type it up in Word first, then have them copy and paste it onto the discussion board, that way if they don't finish in time, they'll be able to continue the following class or when they get a chance any other time. This will be a learning experience for me as well as for the students, but we'll get it all worked out I'm sure.
Teaching this activity is not an option but a must in the state of Maryland. They are saying that by 2014, all state testing will be done on the computer. I'm not sure how this will be logistically possible since we only have one computer lab. I started putting a second computer lab together in my school, but that's just my school, what will the other schools do who don't have any computer labs. Who knows? I guess I'll leave that topic for another blog entry. For now, I will be comforted in knowing that I will do my best to get my students ready for that day.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteYour idea of typing responses to word first is a great way to modify and allow students to finish if class time runs out. They can be ready to post the following class and not feel stressed out about this new technology. Great posts and thank you for trying this activity- we are all learning from you!
How fortunate you are that such disruptive situation turned out so good. Teaching and training kids in good behaviors and practices when using web tools is one of the biggest challenges we have. Having kids write their posts in Word before publishing them is a very good idea, not only because it might help them finish their post without time pressure but because it can help them with mechanics issues and avoid work lost while they became savvy in the use of the blogs.
ReplyDeleteI find really interesting the different issues that might arise from the last part of your post. Teaching technology matters is no longer an option but a must, and I’m not really sure that our Schools are ready to face what this implies. Teachers’ training is just the beginning; there come the infrastructure needs and the definition of use policies, a lot of funding a tough work is required. It is kind of nonsense to consider that every testing will be done in computers if the state administrations do not guarantee the resources for all educational centers to have the computers. Let’s see what happens. I admire teachers like you that are always looking for their student’s welfare and projecting their teaching according to their future needs.
Thanks for the kind words from both of you. Maria, we have to be the advocates for our students' technology needs. Our governments and administrations say a lot of things, but aren't in the trenches and therefore don't really understand the implications of what they say or what the children really need. That is why we have to be innovative and always thinking one step ahead. When they see that we're doing a great job with our students, they may start listening to us and moving technology needs in a way that we prescribe.
ReplyDelete