Have you ever thought of why it would be beneficial for each student to create a blog? One great reason would be for the students to use this as a digital portfolio of his/her best work that they would like to share with others. This webinar entitled "Primary Digital Portfolios " by Kathy Cassidy shows how her students have used digital portfolios in the classroom. This webinar was presented at the k12 Online Conference on October 12, 2010.
My favorite part about this webinar is that the students are presenting how they use the portfolios and why they like doing them in the classroom. One of the students mentioned that if she just showed her work on paper, only the class would see it. However, allowing it to be posted online provides the opportunity for so many others to view and comment on her work. Another student mentioned how he loved to see how his writing has progressed since the beginning of the year. Everyone could see how much growth he has made!
Vocaroo is one of the tools that they use on their blog to show how they are reading in class. It allows people to hear them read and the progress that has been made from the previous post. Sketchcast is another tool that allows them to draw and record for up to twenty minutes. What a great tool for parents to see what their child has been doing in the classroom.
Kathy Cassidy has also set up a wiki that discusses these tools, along with many others to help you create digital portfolios in the classroom . She provides addtional professional resources to find out more on creating a digital portfolios. You can access this information at primary.portfolios.wikispaces.com
The webinar must be hosted on a filtered site from school but people should be able to watch it from home. A good thing to think about doing for your blog audience is to create links to the tools you mention...like vocaroo and sketchcast...so as they are reading...they could just click and go. People are more likely to visit sites that you've linked for them because some people won't know how to find it on their own....and some people won't take the time.
ReplyDeleteok...I take that back...it's not filtered from school...it didn't load for me the first time...it was just blank space...but when I submitted my comment it loaded it...weird.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your suggestion! I have added the links to the tools. Now they can just click and go! I hope people will also click on the wiki link that I previously attached. She has a lot of helpful information.
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