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Troy Hicks, Associate Professor of English at Central Michigan University, says...
"Like many educators, I agree that blogging can provide young writers with opportunities for expression, response, and engagement that move well beyond our classroom walls. From the technical skills of creating links and embedding images, to the academic skills of accepting constructive criticism and expanding ideas in one's writing, blogging allows students to write about topics for which they care, engage in dialogue with others, and reflect on their growth as writers over time. As our students develop their voices, blogging encourages them to move beyond status updates or forum responses, and instead to become fully engaged as digital writers who share their ideas, interests, and insights with the world."
--Troy
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About Troy Hicks
Dr. Troy Hicks is an associate professor of English at Central Michigan University and focuses his work on the teaching of writing, literacy and technology, and teacher education and professional development. A former middle school teacher, he collaborates with K–12 colleagues and explores how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms. Hicks is director of CMU’s Chippewa River Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, and he frequently conducts professional development workshops related to writing and technology. Also, Hicks is author of the The Digital Writing Workshop (Heinemann, 2009) and a co-author of Because Digital Writing Matters (Jossey-Bass, 2010). In March 2011, Hicks was honored with CMU's Provost's Award for junior faculty who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in research and creative activity. Most importantly, he is the father of six digital natives and is always learning something new about writing and technology from them.
@hickstro
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"Students need to have every opportunity possible to practice writing, and in particular, to utilize technology to write outside of traditional pen and paper journal environment. Any reputable website that offers the opportunity for writing and writing practice is something students and teachers need to explore to expand their writing horizons outside of the classroom walls.
Real world writing experiences, such as blogging, make students write differently than when they are simply writing something that will only be handed in to a teacher for a grade via a regular classroom assignment. StageofLife.com offers unique opportunities for students to get their writing outside of the classroom and expand and their writing possibilities and audience."
--Rebecca |
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StageofLife.com is one of the most active teen and college student blogging platforms, with over 100,000 student visitors yearly either reading or uploading essay, blogs and stories to the website. Its monthly, national essay contests have been mentioned on TIME.com, The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch, and other media outlets. Teachers and professors across the globe utilize StageofLife.com to encourage their students to explore blogging and get their writing out of the classroom as they explore real-life topics and issues. For more information please visit www.stageoflife.com
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"Blogging plays a very big role in our services for educators and the education system on TeachAde.com, an award-winning and ground-breaking online resource center and community for educators. The blogs located on our site are written by educators, experts in the field of finance and education, NEA MB executives and representatives and more - all welcome to contribute to a community that supports, educates and provides thousands of valuable free resources and communications tools for our nation's educators. Blogs have been a tool that resonated with teachers who are reaching out to find new resources, share ideas with like-minded teachers in other areas of the country and find solutions from sources they may not have had access to without the wide reach of blogging"
--Dawn |
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Teachade.com is the first website designed specifically for educators that provides free resources, a vibrant community of like-minded professionals and a place to share thoughts, ideas and more that meet each educator's specific interests and needs. TeachAde.com is unique in its dedication to supporting classroom educators, while remaining completely free and easy to use, combining the best features of social networking with abundant educational resources and robust fundraising tools. TeachAde partners with the NEAMB, Disney, Goldie Hawn's Foundation and Adopt-A-Classroom as a core group of like-minded companies with a shared vision and purpose. Investor funding for TeachAde.com has been provided by Robert Potamkin, Chairman of Potamkin Companies. For more information please visit www.teachade.com
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Elaine from STIZZiL says...
"When I was in the classroom, having taught grades 5 - university, I would have loved to have had digital journal writing as a tool for my students to use. The ease of sharing, editing and creating makes blogging online a wonderful tool. A teacher can incorporate all forms of writing, allowing students to explore ideas, while experimenting and obtaining feedback. Too much education is based on testing; blogging about literature, theater, science, history and the arts is a great way to determine a student’s proficiency as well. Many students do not do well with standardized, objective test forms and could have greater success with the subjective format of digital writing.
Blogging online encourages collaboration and students can have the opportunity to expand and test their ideas. Digital blogging allows for a delving into a plethora of areas and for experiencing a worldwide base of readers and listeners. How exciting to share ideas not only with other peers and teachers, but with those who may be older/younger or from another country. I can only imagine having online blogging discussions about science concepts, great literature and a painting from the art museum. Sharing thoughts at any age is informative, fun and challenging. Students of all ages can benefit from this great tool."
--Elaine |
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Elaine is an English teacher of more than 35+ years experience as well as the founder of STIZZiL, a premium, quality on line supplemental education company for students ages 2 - 99. STIZZiL is a supplemental education company offering private/group academic tutoring, K-8 enrichment programs, and test preparation services. STIZZiL is managed and staffed by U.S. state-licensed and trained educators.
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"In the Learning Technologies Master of Science (LTMS) program at Harrisburg University, we regularly see the K-12 classrooms of educators transformed by the new techniques and digital technologies they learn. The transformation happens through a changing perspective from both teachers and students. As teachers, they learn that tools like blogs enable greater participation by all students and create an active learning environment where students are creators of knowledge as well as consumers. For students, their voice in the classroom is amplified as is there voice in the world, through authentic work for authentic readers. While a global audience is ideal, even just expanding the audience to fellow students means that students are creating for an audience other than the teacher. These changes in the classroom provide opportunities for developing 21st Century Skills in students that go beyond the topical learning that’s the primary focus of the course. Teachers also find that they have to do more preparation work for class, but less lecturing during class. They often prefer this scenario and enjoy how the students “lead their learning.”
Many teachers hesitate to integrate digital technology like blogging into the classroom because they are afraid that the students know more than they do. But, that’s often not the case. Teachers are often surprised at how little the students know about using the digital tools for learning. And, that’s yet another opportunity for learning that digital resources like blogging bring to the classroom."
--Andy |
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Founded in 2001 to address Central Pennsylvania’s need for increased opportunities for study leading to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, Harrisburg University is an innovative and ambitious private institution that produces graduates who provide increased competence and capacity in science and technology disciplines to Pennsylvania and the nation. Harrisburg University ensures institutional access for underrepresented students and links learning and research to practical outcomes. As a private University serving the public good, Harrisburg University remains the only STEM-focused comprehensive university located between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. |
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"High school physics students use blogs at APlusPhysics.com to detail their learning in a journal format as well as exploring the application of classroom physics to real-world situations. Students use their blogs to generalize, summarize, question, and identify patterns to strengthen their transfer of knowledge, skills, and understanding to unfamiliar contexts. Further, they use writing to fully develop and synthesize ideas, interpret information, and justify their thinking or argument.
Not only has this enhanced student understanding of our basic curriculum, it has also promoted exploration into applications of physics significantly outside the boundaries of our required content. Based on their blogging experience, high school students have pushed themselves to explore Einstein’s derivation of general relativity; physics and mathematics of music and harmonies; even a scientific assessment of the optimal golf swing! When students choose topics they are interested in, each day becomes an adventure of exploration.
The APlusPhysics.com blogging platform is free and open to all high school educators and students interested in writing to learn about the world around them. Our collaborative educational community consists of students, educators, parents and professionals, all working together to create a safe and constructive learning environment"
--Dan |
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Designed to help high school physics students succeed, APlusPhysics is a free online physics resource that focuses on problem solving, understanding, and real-world applications in the context of introductory physics courses such as NY Regents Physics, Honors Physics, and AP Physics B and C courses.
We cover key topics of introductory physics courses, and demonstrate how the principles and applications of high school physics extend outside the classroom through: Courses, Projects, Forums, Podcasts, Educators, and Blogs.
Blogs - individual and group blogs for students and instructors, providing further opportunities to reflect on concepts and applications while fostering our physics learning community, as well as the Physics In Flux blog which explores redefining the traditional high school physics classroom.
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J.R. Daniel Kirk from Fuller Theological Seminary says...
"A professor’s dream is that students will continue to engage their subject outside the classroom. As a professor who blogs daily, I find that internet conversation provides a place for continuing education for many of my students. I often field comments on the blog in which former students show me that they are finally getting hold of and wrestling with concepts that were central to our time together in the classroom. Simply put, ten to fifteen weeks in a classroom can provide a good foundation, but engaging with similar ideas over months and even years by means of continuing interaction over the internet has proven transformative for many of my students.
In the field of biblical studies there is a large community of professors and students who blog regularly. The cross-pollination of ideas and readers within this community keeps the conversations lively and often produces high-caliber content. When interested students discover this world, it often keeps them engaged. One of the principal educational benefits of blogging I have seen is that it keeps some students actively wrestling with the academic questions that have the power to change how they see the world."
--J.R. Daniel Kirk
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Storied Theology explores the intersection of biblical studies, theology, church, and culture.
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Tom Jacobs from AsktheJudge says...
"I am a retired juvenile judge and the founder/moderator of AsktheJudge.info. AsktheJudge is a great tool and resource that can be used by teachers in the classroom. Whether the students are learning about civics, social studies, the U.S. Constitution or law and theory, they can read about all sorts of related issues on AsktheJudge and share their thoughts and opinions during a classroom discussion. Students can learn about our justice system and our constitutional rights by reading hundreds of real life stories and cases involving adults as well as teens who fought for their rights and helped shape our laws. The interactive feature on AsktheJudge allows teachers and students to have their questions answered by a legal professional and to interact with other users on the site."
--Tom
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AsktheJudge.info, a youth justice website where we answer teens', parents' and educators' questions about the rights of t(w)eens and the laws affecting them. AsktheJudge is an educational and interactive site where we discuss the legal aspects of all issues affecting today's youth including free speech rights at school, cell phone privacy rights at school, cyberbullying, sexting, etc. The "Talk Back" section features news, court opinions and current events. Each article ends with a series of questions to facilitate discussion on these important issues.
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"My name is Leslie Samuel and I'm a new assistant Professor at Andrews University. Up until this last year, I've been teaching high school science and math.
I started a blog where I teach biology online, and share all kinds of resources for others to help make learning biology fun. I run it primarily as a video blog, and it is being used by thousands of people all over the world. I've had over 53,000 visitors to the site since January and get a lot of positive feedback in daily messages.
I believe that blogs can change the way people learn. There are so many resources that can be shared online that I'm amazed at how much can be accomplished."
--Leslie
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Interactive-Biology.com is a website with videos, games, handouts and other resources to help make biology fun. The site is used by thousand of peoples all over the world (over 130 different countries), ranging from high school to college, graduate school to medical schools, nurse practitioners, and medical doctors.
Blogging is a powerful tool, when used correctly. Our goal is to use the blog to change the way people consume biology, and to make a high quality biological training available to anyone with access to an internet connection. Not only that, but we hope to inspire other educators to do the same, so that we can continue changing the world, one blog at a time.
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Maria a fifth grade teacher says...
"After receiving an iPod grant, I decided to start a blog about how to integrate iPods into all areas of our fifth-grade classroom. My biggest concern was the integration into literacy because I wanted to weave reading workshop, writing workshop and word study into focused lessons using the iPods.
While searching the web, I found Wonderopolis.org, and the opportunity to incorporate all three areas of literacy has been a huge success in my classroom as well as the connection between home and school learning. It's been a WONDERful journey.
One specific way I used technology in the classroom last year was integrating Skype and Wonderopolis to connect my students in Dublin, Ohio, with the classroom of Jonathan Fines, a kindergarten teacher in Missoula, Mont.
Our classes celebrated National Poem in Your Pocket day. Both classes shared Shel Silverstein poems, and some actually sang a few. My fifth-graders loved the fact that their audience was in Montana and that they had to choose their poems based on the age of the children. It was a huge hit that both Jonathan and I want to try again. Jonathan said Wonderopolis is like taking his kids to Disneyland, and I agree. It is a wonderful free resource to ignite learning in any classroom."
--Maria
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About Maria
Maria has been teaching for 23 years; the last 14 in fifth grade. She is using her blog to share her thinking about iPods, new technology tools, and books. Check out her blog at http://teachingin21.blogspot.com/
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