Grade 4/5s in the digital world!

Cyberworld, I am pleased to introduce my grade 4/5 students to your large and complicated world, as they start to make their own digital footprint through their own personalized blogs.

When I first met my students, I noticed that they do not particularly enjoy hand writing assignments and reflective journals. It seems, to them, that this practice is worn out, takes too long, and is overall boring. Furthermore, with the amount of accommodations and IEPs in my class, half of the students shut down completely when faced with the daunting task of writing out work without knowing where to start. Though these students have technology and word processing software available to them should they decided to utilize it, most of the time they don't think to do so. This was a hurdle that I was determined to overcome.

Blogs, I thought, are a great way to solve all of these obstacles. It encourages my IEP learners to think about the technology available to them to enhance and facilitate their learning. By using blogs, students with accommodations are not as intimidated by conventions of writing, such as forming letters, spelling and proper sentence structure. Word processing programs self correct student work and allow them an alternate avenue to complete written work. This is also easier for me, as I can make edits as I go, and the barrier of not being able to read student work is virtually null.

For my other students, this allows them a fresh and fun way to write their journals. The content is precisely the same, except this way the know that their work is being looked at by not only myself, but by their peers and the world, allowing their voice to be heard.

Students love it when I comment on their blogs, and this paperless form really makes it easier for me to access, view and evaluate their work. Learning skills are more than evident through this process as well, as students needed to use critical thinking and problem solving skills when troubleshooting problems in writing or setting up their blogs. There is also a level of responsibility students must maintain, from remembering their usernames and passwords, to remaining appropriate and safe online. Our session on "Cyber safety and bullying"at the Mohawk safety village was a good reference to these concepts.

Of course, I have run into barriers, particularly access to the internet on days that the sever is down, and access to computers in general. I have learned to always have a back up plan, which typically is having students map out their blogs in rough form before being allowed to translate their work on Blogger.

I am blown away at the progress my students have made, and how through using blogs their work has improved and become more sophisticated through the removal of contemporary barriers present in the traditional journal format.