This week I am a guest in Carla Arena's WebTools4Educators online course. This week the group is exploring educational blogging, and I'm thrilled at the chance to interact with everyone.
One of the assignments for this week is for the participants to create a class blog on Blogger and to write their first post. Carla has asked everyone to make a good first impression by including a picture or embedding a video.
In fact, I am setting up a new blog titled English I Computer Lab Blog for my first year writing class that meets in the computer lab every other week for 90 minutes. Since I've been thinking a lot about the 2007 LwC Cartoon Festival, I was inspired to use the topic of friendship again and to ask students to use the dVolver movie maker. My first two posts are related to this idea.
In the Friendship post, I wanted students to discuss their definition of friendship and also to explore the ups and downs of friendship. In order to catch their interest, I included a picture of one of my best friends and me. The blog is a perfect place for me to share a more personal side of myself and to encourage students to do the same. This post not only opens up the channels of communication, but also engages learners with the material we are working on in class which just happens to be writing definitions!
In the Review a Cartoon post (inspired by Carla R) I wanted students to look at some cartoons that previous students made about friendship using dVolver movie maker. I embedded these into the post and asked students to make a comment. In the future, they will be making their own cartoon, so this preview may get them excited about the project, and will give them a chance to develop multiliteracies.
4 comments:
Dear Marysita,
You're a master blogger! I just loved how you're setting the mood to get started in a new project with your students. We all have something to say about friends, memories, right?
You're always an inspiration full of creativity to get the best out of every learner. Thanks for being with us.
Dear Mary,
I'm really glad to know you've decided to take up the topic of friendship + Dvolver again and to take it further!
I've just published a short post about our collaborative article, too!
Thanks once again for your friendship and support at all times.
I'm already on maternity leave waiting for little Chiara :-)
Big hugs, Carla R
Carlita,
Exciting news!!! So, is Chiara coming to this world any time now? Pleeease, let us know. And hope to see you around. I miss our interactions tremendously!
Besos.
Hi Carla A and Carla R!
Unfortunately taking this topic further has gone by the wayside. The new blog at blogger was identified as spam, and I haven't been able to use it! However, I'm so thrilled about our article in the TESL-EJ and I hope it inspires some educators to do collaborative projects.
Carla R, I'm so happy to hear that you are expecting Chiara soon! Be sure to send us the news and lots of photos for sure! Of course we miss you, but it is an important time for you and your family :)
Hugs,
Mary
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