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Question 1: What are my early impressions of using a blog and an RSS Reader?
So far, it seems pretty straight forward and simple. I like the blog as a communication device to prompt discussion among readers. One thing I'm not sure about is if a reader makes a comment, and then someone else comments, will the first reader get an email of the new comment, or would s/he need to go back to the blog to check if there were new comments? I'm not sure what I would prefer. From my experience using Facebook, sometimes I like that feature, and sometimes I find it annoying. As for the RSS Reader, I must admit that I was a bit overwhelmed at first by the number of postings that compiled into one area. However, I do like the idea of the convenience of having all the news that is important to you in one place. I will probably continue to use it at least through the rest of the class to see if it takes hold of me.
Question 2: Which part(s) of the cone of experience does the blog and RSS lend itself best to and why?
Quite honestly, this was a brutal reading for me. I had a difficult time following, and kept drifting, and having to reread paragraphs. Funny, because one of the first things that the author of the next article stated was that online learning was not meant to put you to sleep at the keyboard. Ha! Amen! Anyway, to answer the question, I would probably put both the blog and RSS technology toward the top of the cone, as it does not physically involve the learner in the process of gaining the experience. Most often, blogs and RSS feeds contain, visual symbols, images, audio recordings, or videos. For example, while you might read of the devastation from a natural disaster in another country through Yahoo! News, and be moved or heartbroken over it, you cannot smell the air, or feel the physical pain of some of its victims.
Question 3: What is an imaginative way to use a blog and RSS in education?
I think it would be neat to use a blog to post a controversial topic related to the subject that I teach, for instance, alternative energy, including some background information of the pros and cons of various types of alternative energy, and have students comment on which sources they think are the best and why. Or, if each student had his/her own blog, I could assign each one to research one alternative energy source and report on it through the blog. Then ask students to read and comment to a certain number of other blogs that have reported on different alternative energy sources.
As for the RSS Reader, I could have students subscribe to an online engineering journal, blog, etc..., and check the reader regularly to learn about current trends in industry. I could then require students to summarize an interesting article a certain number of times per semester through their blog.
I agree that I can see lots of uses for the blog. The RSS though, I found hard to navigate. It would not bring anything I requested specifically up--it brought a huge string of things up and you had to scroll through them to find the thing you were looking for and then it might not really pertain to what you wanted just had the word included. It was very interesting as it has everything and anything out there. I also had a real challenge getting it to allow me to post links on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that the blog and RSS are both at the top of the Cone of Experience.
I also find your idea of each student having their own blog to research a topic and share ideas with other students.
Margie Springer
Blogging would be an effective way to have students complete summer AP assignments. You could have completion dates and that way you would know they did more than pull an all nighter the night before school started in order to complete the assignment.
ReplyDeleteI liked the cone article because he was so emphatic that it was just a guide line and nothing was absolute. As we know nothing is absolute in teaching. It can be one of those best layed plans of mice and men scenarios.
The RSS Feed I loved because I was able to find very specific topics and it found them right away. I did not like it at first because I was wading through all of there choices which I thought were mostly junk. When I typed in my specific it was great.
I agree with blogs being a good tool for communication as we are doing right now!
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about an RSS reader. I did get the hang of tagging or labeling the feeds and that helped me to stay organized. It does in the end save you a lot of time by manually going to each website to look for new information.
I would also say that both an RSS Reader and a Blog would also fit in the middle. Blogs can contain pictures, video, and audio. Feeds can take you to a page that could include the same thing.
Alternative energy is a great topic for a blog discussion. You could split you class up as for or against implementing a project. I good example of this is the Great Lakes Wind Farm the New York Power Authority wants to put in the great lakes.
The RSS reader has not taken a hold of me yet either. I'm going to continue trying for now, but I still prefer just looking up information elsewhere. One thing is that I look most news up on my phone and so it already seems easy.
ReplyDeleteI felt like with the Cone article it seemed very ambiguous. There were all sorts of categories, yet very little fits in perfectly.