Blogging Through Classroom Technology

I just heard of Diigo for the first time, but I have been using Pinterest for a few years now, mostly for hobbies and lately for teaching help. I found one better than the other and I think most will agree with me after comparing some features. Both sites are meant to be an organizational tool for websites. Diigo uses tags to organize websites, while Pinterest uses boards. The up side of tags is that it can be categorized multiple ways vs boards are separated once (unless you post it twice). The sites that are saved on Diigo are just text, Pinterest sites are saved through an image (pins), which can go either way for different people. The text on the saved sites are just like a regular website; text can be highlighted, copied, and pasted. Both of these websites are based on accounts. Using these accounts you can follow others and they can follow you, although I found Diigo confusing to follow. Diigo also has groups, which allows multiple people to share sites together, similar to a sh...

"I looked at the current education system, I said 'Whats wrong with it?' And the biggest problem I found is it didn't know how to motivate kids." "...It's in our DNA to be motivated, I think the current model... is just really good at squashing that motivation." "In education the Use it or lose it rule may mean If you don't use tech for learning , you may lose relevance. An educator must be relevant." "Teachers need to exist in the spaces the students exist, understand their culture. You have no credibility if you are not where they are." Motivation : Children love technology; they just don't seem to have trouble starting a video game like they do homework. Students have to be in classes for seven hours a day so as educators we should be making it as exciting and appealing as possible. I have seen many classrooms with students sitting in rows of desks, reading out of a textbook, while the teacher babbles to the one...

I started blogging last semester for a class and really loved the freedom that came with it. As a student, I found that I could write for a class and not feel stressed about sounding professional. Having that stress taken away made my assignments more meaningful and more fun! I would use blogs in my music classroom for reflections of music. Each Friday my students partake in Favorite Friday, where select students choose some of their favorite songs, past or present, and their classmates reflect on each song. I ask them to write at least three things about the song using musical terms, such as beat, lyrics, or certain instruments. I usually have them write this on paper and most students write very little. I believe that if I opened this up to a blog, many more students would be interested. An aspect I really like about blogging is commenting. I think my students could really get into commenting on each others posts since it is extremely similar to Facebook or Instagram. They would ...