How do your students respond to the wiki activity that you did in your classroom? What were your biggest challenges? What were the biggest challenges? In what ways was the activity successful or unsucessful?
What is a wiki? What are the challenges that are created by websites like Wikipedia, where anyone can go in and edit information? How might a teacher use a wiki in his or her classroom in a way that effectively teaches necessary writing skills?
Good morning teachers! Today we are releasing a couple of new features for Digital Xpress. The enhancements improve the student experience and help them to get more involved in their writing and the writing of other students.
The first enhancement is the new activity feed for students. What is an activity feed you say? Well, the general idea is that every action the student makes within Digital Xpress lands on his or her activity feed. The activity feed shows assignments that you, the teacher, assign. It shows writings and reflections that the student creates. It also shows comments from the student and from the classmates & buddies of the student. The activity feed provides a “pulse” of Digital Xpress so that the students can jump into the conversation; they know that their writings are being read and can read and comment on other students’ writing.
Students who know that other students are going to read their writing and become involved, are more likely to engage themselves in their writing. This engagement translates into better writing and more learning! This is the goal of the new activity feed; to encourage interaction between students. You can use this to encourage positive interaction between your students in the classroom and after hours (when they are doing their homework).
And we recognize that not everything that is said is beneficial, so you, the teacher, have access to the discussion and can remove inappropriate content.
The second new feature available to you, is — wait for it — embeded video and other content in your assignments! Up to this point you could upload an image to prompt student writing, but now you can embed any content that you think would prompt student writing. It could be a video, a slide show, whatever. If you can get the “embed code” for the content, you can use it as a prompt for your students. Again, we offer this new feature because the rich media can help engage students and improve their writing. There are lots of opportunities to use video to teach history and respond, to create a fictitious narration to explain a situation, — the possibilities are endless.
We’ve made the updates to Digital Xpress today. So let us know what you think! We’d like to hear how you use it!
After reading about telecollaboration on the sites provided, has your definition changed. Select three projects (http://teaparty.terc.edu/research/resources/join-tele-projects.html) that you think are particularly interesting. Post about the pros and cons of these three telecollaborative projects. Finally, is there a project you’d like to participate in on this site? Would you like to telecollaborate with another class in the Digital Xpress project on a state standard topic? Post your ideas and we’ll use them in Lesson 6: Telecollaboration Part 2.
Define the term “telecollaboration.” How might the Digital Xpress medium be used as a venue for telecollaborative writing projects?
First review the PowerPoint file that I sent to you and review all external links. When you return to school in January, try a digital portfolio assignment in your class. You could use PowerPoint, Google sites, or the Digital Xpress Blog.
Now that you have reviewed the materials, go back to these questions to which you responded in the pre-measure:
1. How might a digital portfolio be used to help students understand the writing process?
2. What are some metaphors one might use in creating a digital portfolio?
3. What are the challenges a teacher might face in assessing a digital portfolio? How might he/she overcome these obstacles?
4. What are some good lesson plan ideas for writing that elementary school students might use in digital portfolios?
As you respond to these questions, talk about your own experience with incorporating a digital portfolio assignment into your class.
For this lesson, you will be reviewing a PPT that I have created, as well as viewing some outside links on digital portfolios. Before you get to those readings, respond to the following questions:
1. How might a digital portfolio be used to help students understand the writing process?
2. What are some metaphors one might use in creating a digital portfolio?
3. What are the challenges a teacher might face in assessing a digital portfolio? How might he/she overcome these obstacles?
4. What are some good lesson plan ideas for writing that elementary school students might use in digital portfolios?
How did blogs help your students in the final phase of the writing process? Do you feel like publishing writing helped your students’ motivation as they wrote? Did their writing improve as a result?
What are the steps in the writing process? Do you teach the writing process in your classes? If so, how do you use these steps in writing assignments and how do you help your students share their work during the “publish” stage of the writing process?
This is a 3-minute tutorial to introduce you to Buddies in Digital Xpress. We’ve recently updated the site to make buddies available to teachers who have signed up for Digital Xpress.
What Are buddies?
Searching for teachers interested in buddies
Enabling other teachers to find me
Buddying my own students
What are buddies? Why should I use them?
Buddies are used in Digital Xpress to allow two students to read and comment on another student’s work. Buddies allow students to share their writing with other students, comment on what they read, and share suggestions and opinions with one another. One way to view it is as if they were “pen pals”. You, the teacher, can select students you pair up to share writings and comments.
Student’s who have buddies have more interest in what they are writing - they know that their peers will read what they write. They have a reason to write, and write more engagingly. In addition, commenting on each other’s work allows them to practice reading, interpreting another person’s writing, and then writing back. This “extra practice” engages the student and helps him or her to improve their writing ability.
As the teacher, you are able to observe the communication that goes on between students. You can be comfortable that their interaction is constructive. Writings that are shared are approved by you, and comments can be moderated by you, allowing you to suggest more constructive criticism or remove anything offensive.
How do I find another class to buddy with?
There are several ways to assign buddies within Digital Xpress. The first is to search for other teachers who have expressed an interest in finding buddies for their own class. This option is available by clicking on the “Buddies” option in the main menu of Digital Xpress. You will find yourself on this page:
In the middle of the page, you can see the option “Find teachers looking for buddies”. Try searching for a subject area or state you are interested in buddying with. You will see a set of classes that match your search criteria. All of these teachers have expressed an interest in finding buddies for their classes.
Helpful Hint: We recommend that you “enable buddies” for your classes so that other teachers can find your classes. You never know what kind of great opportunities for buddying your student’s might find you! Follow this link to read the section on enabling buddies.
Extending an invitation
If one of the classes looks like a good fit, click on the invite link. There you will see the available details on the class and what the teacher is looking for. If you think the teacher might be interested in buddying with you, enter a message to the other teacher and click “Send Invitation”.
Once you have sent an invitation, you and the other teacher can discuss your class and aims for a project, etc that you have. If you find that you are a good fit, the other teacher will accept your invitation. If not, the invitation will expire.
Assigning Buddies
Once an invitation has been accepted, it’s time to assign the student’s in pairs to share work. Below is a sample screen.
There are several options for assigning buddies. You can assign them manually, using the drop down boxes beneath the student names, or you can use the “Assign buddies randomly” link to begin with randomly chosen buddies. You can always undo a buddy assignment or add one back!
Once a student is buddied with another student, they can share published writings and comment!
What if I don’t find a good matching teacher? You can enable other teachers to find you.
If you search for teachers looking for buddies, but don’t find any, there is another option. When you first enter the Buddy section of Digital Xpress, there is a list your classes in the middle of the page. Next to that class is a link that either says “Enable buddies” or “edit buddy settings”. Click this link.
“Enabling buddies” allows you to make your class available to other teachers in Digital Xpress who may be interested in finding buddies. Enter a description of what you are looking for, maybe a project description, or something about your students and what makes them special. When you save the dialog, your class will be available to other teachers searching for buddies.
What if I want to buddy my own students?
Also available through the first page of the Buddy section of Digital Xpress is the ability to assign buddies within your own classes. Just click the link “Assign buddies within my own classes”, then select the two classes you would like to buddy. Once you have selected these, you can assign buddies to your own students.
Thanks for reading! We hope you like being a part of Digital Xpress. We’ve made the feature available to you because we believed it was important to you. Let us know what you think!
Recent Comments