- the freedom with which some students who were hesitant in classrooms, expressed ideas,
- discussed their difficulties in comprehension,
- those who struggled in putting pen to paper to transcribe their thoughts and ideas actually wrote fluidly on the computer
- began to post questions and challenge peers
- became involved in peer coaching
- took ownership of their learning
- create better writing artifacts overall
When we integrate the internet into our classroom in ways that foster a sense of safety for our students, they will take more risks and feel more comfortable to share. The fact is "getting students to read print materials such as books .... has become quite a challenge in networked cultures in which interactive texts abound. Once they learn how, students prefer to go online to conduct their literacy activities." (McNabb 2006, p. 56)
This preferred environment warrants some more exploration on our part.
Happy Blogging!
I agree with what you are saying, because in doing my research paper web 2.0, I wrote about some of these same benefits that a student can derived from online literacy circles. Traditionally literacy was used in the subject area of Language Arts and reading, but today we are incorporating it into Science, Maths and other content areas.Because of this link students are able to see the relationship among the subjects and how it is related to the world outside. By linking what they know to their own experiences they begin to understand themselves more. The online circles is a way for students to be heard. There is no face and they can write their thoughts and views. In sharing these thoughts. they then realize that they have gained an audience who is interested in what they are saying thus building their confidence to collaborate more.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly agree with what you have described in this post. I often tell my children that everything we need to know is on the Internet and they take great pride in teaching the teacher. Reading traditional books can be a daunting task to many students but they really become engaged and take responsibility for their learning when they are on the Internet or are involved in some incorporation of technology into the teaching and learning process. Teachers really have to re-examine how we teach and how students learn in order to create better functioning citizens as opposed to students with better examination results.
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