Blogging: A Web 2.0 Tool to Increase Intrinsic Motivation to Read and Write.

Working on this week's assignment was a demanding but highly satisfying activity. This assignment made me think deeply and critically about the use of blogs by the classroom teacher. In this blog I will give a brief synopsis of what I have learnt.

Blogs are easy to create and maintain (as we all know). It is important to note however, that when students are allowed to create and customise their own blogs by adding text, images and themes and changing font sizes and colours it creates a phenomenal sense of "ownership" in students which motivates them to persist in reading and writing in their personal space.

The fact that blogs are generally accomplished in a "non-classroom sanctioned" environment, they provide the opportunity for teachers to extend learning and engage students beyond the classroom. (Downs, 2004). Students can work at their own pace and can spend more or less time at each stage of the task depending on their individual abilities. This reduces anxiety and and therefore motivates students to read and write blogs. This can be of particular benefit to the struggling reader or writer as it provides individual support from the teacher in a safe environment.

The "comment" feature of blogs also allows students to develop and express their thoughts and ideas and receive feedback from others. This allows students to earn from each other in an enjoyable manner in a social forum and increases confidence which in turn fosters intrinsic motivation to read and write. These findings are supported by studies conducted by Papert (1998).

Reading and writing blogs forces students to engage in critical literacy or higher thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation and synthesis. When students read blogs, they generally analyse what was read, they reflect and they adopt a point of view based on what was read. This enables the blogger to thus write critically because the critical skill of writing is central to the act of blogging.

However, as teachers we must ensure that students are aware that blogs can be inaccurate sources of information as they are maintained by individuals and may therefore contain biased information.

Upon reflection, I have realised that doing this assignment has made me somewhat of an expert on blogging and its effects on increasing motivation to read and write among students.

The Joys of Using eBooks

Stories are an integral part of children's lives. Most people can remember their favourite stories which were found either at home or in libraries. Today, a vast array of books are available to children in different genres. With advances in technology, students now can access eBooks. Today there are over 2 million FREE eBooks available for download.

What is an eBook? Prior to this course, I had a vague idea of what an eBook was. An eBook is the abbreviated form for an electronic book and is also known as a digital book. according to Oxford it is an"electronic version of a printed book which can be hand held or which can be read on a personal computer.

Originally I thought eBooks were books that could have been read electronically ONLY on the computer so I was never too keen about them because I thought curling up in bed with a book was the thing to do. I could not have imagined curling up with the computer, so it never appealed to me. However, when I was exposed to the various types of eBooks in the ICT class, I must admit that I was hooked! I went home stating that I wanted an ipad and my children looked in amazement , stating, "What do YOU know about ipads?"

Using Powerpoint to make an ebook was an exciting and awesome experience, one which I definitely will be using with my First Year students. Making that Alphabet Book in class demonstrated the tremendous possibilities available to teachers for use to motivate children. The ability to put in sound, clip art as well as text really caters to the multiple intelligences of the child.

This is truly a wonderful tool.

My Fascination with Digital Storytelling

After today's lab session, I have come to the conclusion that I am budding movie producer, author, graphic designer, music maker and writer! Digital Storytelling is an awesome tool that has immense opportunities for teachers and students in today's classrooms. Digital Storytelling caters to the Multiple Intelligences of students in the classroom as it develops skills which would normally have gone unnoticed.

A digital story according to Davis (2004) is a short, generally personal narrative, told in the first person, presented as a short movie for display on a television or computer monitor or projected on to a screen.

Once Photostory 3 is downloaded onto the computer, (which I was unable to do because I do not have Windows 7) digital storytelling is fairly easy to create. In order to create a digital story, it is wise to create a storyboard or storymap which will summarize each major story event. All storyboards have essentially three major components: a call to adventure, a central problem and closure.

Features such as adding and customising text, inserting music and voice completes the story. In a society where media prevails, this is truly an awesome tool for today's children in today's classroom.

Literacy and the Web

I thought Mondays session dealing with literacy and the web was particularly helpful for writing and reading websites. Research on the F-shaped pattern was particularly interesting. This had implications for the writing of blogs and what would be read by readers of my blogs. I knew that overly detailed information when writing on websites should be avoided but the word limit of 17 words I was unaware of. (That last sentence had 24 words!) I was also aware that the use of jargon, abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided as this is also required in academic writing.

What was particularly surprising was the use of the Sans Serif Fonts (I just changed the font of this blog) but I could see the reason for this because the Sans Serif Fonts really make for easier reading on the computer. In academic writing we were always told that Times Roman was the recommended font.

Web design guidelines were also informative; especially the use of repetition of elements and colour. For example, when writing headers, all headers should be in the same colour and the same font. Sometimes in our efforts to present data attractively we stray from doing this. I was also unaware that the centre alignment of texts creates confusion.

The Safety and Privacy issues is something we take for granted but I see the importance of teaching the rules of digital Citizenship to students. I see this as of utmost importance, especially to young students.

Finally the exercise dealing with the validity and reliability of online articles and the manner in which it was done was particularly helpful. A helpful session indeed.

Assessment 2- Web 2.0 in Reading Instruction

Since there is a dearth of research on how Web 2.0 technologies can be used to support reading instruction, we are required to write a paper on its use so as to fill this gap. The technology I chose is Blogs. I chose this technology because it is the one I am most familiar with (thanks to this posting assignment) and it also the one which I believe that students will most relate to.

I thought I knew about the features of blogs and the types of blogs that were available but researching the topic, I realised that there are quite a few type of blogs and there are some features of blogs that I weren't aware of. Here are some of the funny and interesting things that I came across while reading. Do you know that there are Art blogs, Photoblogs, Videoblogs, MP3Blogs as well as audioblogs? A videoblog is called a vblog. Can you guess what a blog about home and family is called? Did you guess a mom blog? I think that might be sexist, what do you think? Why not a dad blog? Do you also know that a legal blog is called a blawg? I thought that too was funny. As of December,2007 Technocrati was tracking more than 112,000,000. We are now in 2010, can you imagine the figure and that is only for Technocrati ! That is almost unbelievable.

This assignment is indeed a thought-provoking paper because of my inexperience as well as the lack of information available on the topic. However, I have gleaned a lot by starting this assignment in terms of information from readings and I hope to complete it in the near future and submit to Turnitin.

I have learnt how to upload an image on to my blog, I feel so proud of myself. I guess this is how the student will feel in the classroom.

Using concept mapping software

Concept mapping software is a web 2.0 graphical tool used for organizing and representing knowledge. Ansubel (1968) makes the link with concept learning and meaningful learning. Concept maps demonstrate ideas or concepts which are represented by boxes or circles and connecting or linking lines which show the relationships between two concepts. Sometimes words are written on the linking lines specifying the relationships between the two concepts and so clarifies the ideas.

Using concept mapping software offers free software with exciting possibilities to both teachers and students. Using this tool affords easy collaboration between users with possibilities to create and edit. It can also be linked to multimedia. Using this tool in the lab was exciting, I especially liked how images could be added to concept maps. I can see this tool being used effectively by teachers in the classroom. it can be used to brainstorm ideas and so assess prior knowledge. It can also be used to interpret information in textbooks; it can be used for group work , projects, research and group or oral presentations.

I will definitely be using this web 2.0 tool in the classroom.

Struggling with Web 2.0 Technologies

Research shows that integrating technology into the teaching of reading has the potential to improve key literacy components such as decoding, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary. it can also be used to assist in developing writing skills, motivation as well as reading assessment. I thought that I had some basic computer skills but this course made me realise that whatever little skills I have is outdated and there is a whole new World Wide Web available in the form of Web 2.0 technologies which include word processors, blogs, concept mapping software, wikis and podcasts.

I realise that I have to schedule a lot of time to use these technologies in order to effectively integrate technology integration and reading instruction and so assist adolescent readers in developing their reading and writing skills. Some of the web 2.0 technologies seem confusing. For example, I was unsure of the difference between a podcast and a blog. I "googled" it and realised that the essential difference is that a blog is read and a podcast is listened to. I hope this sheds some light to my peers who are in a like position as I am. I know now exactly how a struggling learner feels: I dread when Tuesdays arrive when I have classes, (they seem to come by so quickly); I feel anxious because I do not feel up to date; when I hear others speak in class I feel lost sometimes.

Now that the vacation is here, I know that I have a lot of catching up to do, I am a bit overwhelmed but I hope with the assistance of my tutor and my peers, I will be able to achieve the objectives of this course.