When you enter educational and blog as search terms in any type of engine you get millions of results. One article that was very interested to me was written by Alison Sawmiller who is at the time of publication was a junior high and high school science teacher in Convoy Ohio. There are many different areas covered in the article but the section that most interested me was motivation. When students are allowed to use technology they would normally use everyday as a part of their classroom experience they were much more motivated to not only complete writing assignments but also to complete them at a much higher level. Sawmiller found that when the audience changed from just the teacher and the student was only completing the assignment for a grade, to the entire world being able to see their work all of a sudden students writing in the science classroom became a much more positive experience. I do not have many writing assignment in the music classes I teach but agree that larger and more authentic you make the audience for an assignment the more likely you are to have students meet or exceed your expectations.
Sawmiller, A. (2010). Classroom Blogging: What is the Role in Science Learning?. Clearing House, 83(2), 44-48. Retrieved from Academic Search Primer March 3, 2010.
The second article I choose to really dig into was much more lighthearted. “Internationalizing Technology Teaching with Blogs and Bananas” was a project that teamed up two Australian elementary students, two college students from the US who were studying elementary education, and one current teacher or professor. The project was to come up with a moon vehicle that was entirely edible (don’t want to leave anything behind on your first trip). Elementary and college students each had a blog that they used to exchange photos and information throughout the entire project. Not only did students in both places get a wonderful way to exchange information but also had the chance to learn about international difference such as a cookie in the US is a biscuit in Australia. This turned out to be a fabulous project in many different ways and took the idea of a pen pal and mentor program to a whole new level. The exciting thing to me was that there was so much learned beyond just some college students giving the occasional advice to some far off elementary students.
Davey, S., Smith, W., & Merrill, C. (2009). Internationalizing Technology Teaching with Blogs and Bananas. Technology Teacher, 69(2), 22-26. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database March 3, 2010)
This is so true..."but agree that larger and more authentic you make the audience for an assignment the more likely you are to have students meet or exceed your expectations." I would see this when students did videos for contests or for other people in our community or district. Great post, Abby. Could you connect internationally with other music students with your students? Maybe exchanging a piece of music native to the culture?
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