I just helped Brenna put links to Youtube videos on her blog. (Please visit her blog and leave a comment! You'll totally make her day!) She wrote a brief post about animal abuse as part of her "free choice" homework assignment. So instead of her teacher being her only audience, she sent it out to the world. An authentic, motivating experience for her. What a big difference from when I was in 5th grade! I would have turned in a couple of paragraphs to my teacher who would have given it back to me with the usual grammar and spelling corrections. Authentic? No. Motivating? The "free choice" aspect would have been a little motivating, but definitely not exciting.
I asked Brenna what she liked about blogging:
Brenna: "I'm always excited when I get comments from people I don't know, people around the world. And also, when I go to someone else's blog, someone out of the school, then they comment back and that's cool. I like blogs because they're like your own website and when I get comments that means people are coming to my blog and reading it. You don't know the audience, but their comments are usually positive. It's cool seeing other blogs and what they write about. Usually when you go to someone's blog you get to know their personality. You can also get your ideas down and people can come to your blog and tell you they like your ideas and then help you."
And people from around the world ARE coming to Brenna's blog! I'm not sure why strangers are interested in what my 10 year has to say, but they are! She's had visitors from China, the US, Canada, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. Authentic? You bet! Motivating? Absolutely!
Although I've been a techie for a long time, I didn't embrace blogging at first. Jeff Utecht, now a tech integrationist at International School of Bangkok, introduced blogs to our school 3 years ago. Kids wrote about trivial things, like playing four square at recess. I didn't see the value. Yes, they were writing to the world, but no one was commenting and do you really have to tell the world when you win at foursquare?
Now, 3 years later, teachers have discovered how to use blogs as an effective educational tool. Both of my kids have blogs that are used in almost all their classes. They even have posts written in Chinese! The only thing I can read of Brenna's Chinese post are the words Bobby and Benny. I have no clue what Bobby and Benny did, but 20% of the world's population can read her post!
Blogging has changed my children's education for the better. It's exciting to think what's next! I predict it's going to be social networks. Google Docs (social desktop publishing) is already happening and I think teachers will soon grasp the concept of using nings. I'm definitely not a technology visionary, but I'm going to watch those in the forefront to see how they use the latest technologies, especially nings. I need to remember how blogs evolved to be a very effective educational tool in a relatively short time.
If I see a Four Square Ning, I know we're on the right track!
5 comments:
Awesome! I will check out her blog. :)
Thanks Shan! She absolutely LOVES getting comments on her blog! You'll totally make her day! :o)
Brenna must have a wonderful teacher to provide such authentic and motivating tech experiences. :)
I'm sorry it took me so long to read this but I'm going to comment on her blog right now! I would love to have you as my mom!
How cool that your daughter has readers from all over the world and enjoys interacting with them. My oldest daughter is 17. When she was about 10-12 years old she was so self-motivated and ambitious. She started teaching herself Chinese until a woman from church offered to teach her. She worked hard on dance and on her school work. Such dreams they have at that age. It's a precious time! My daughter is still self-motivated and ambitious, but there is such an unbridled chasing after dreams at the younger age that seems to fade a bit even by the late teens. Sigh.
Sounds like you've got a great daughter too.
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