Over the course of this M ed. Program, I have seen many ways that teachers can give students a voice. This is especially so for this course in web 2.0 technologies. Students can use blogs, wikis, podcasts and digital storytelling etc. to express their opinions and develop reading and writing skills.
This is the reason that many of the social networking sites like facebook, hifive and the others are so popular. It is not just about that desire for two seconds in the spotlight and ‘the everyone wants to be famous’ game. I know of students who do not even have a computer at home and have facebook accounts which they access regularly. People, especially young people, are looking for places where their opinions are of value. In spite of how misguided the methods they use sometimes.
There is a golden opportunity here for teachers to help their students access these avenues and also use them for productive purposes. Even as there is so much negativity that students, especially adolescents have to relate to daily. This will help students learn gain the benefits that can be achieved from expressing their opinions in positive ways.
This voice I note is not always used in the best interest. As you noted there are students who have facebook accounts and can navigate them quite well, however when it come to doing research and written assignments using the technology they see it as work.As teachers we need to create assessments which are engaging as well as allowing for their creativity. The class can create their own blog based on content area topics, here they can gain valuable writing and editing skills.
ReplyDelete