Article 8: Give Girls a Chance: Building a Bridge to Science and Technology

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Furger, R. (2003, September 03). Give Girls a Chance: Building a Bridge to Science and Technology. Retrieved June 03, 2011, from edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/techbridge-science-technology-girls

Article 7: The New Literacy

Summary:

This article was written by Sara Armstrong and David Warlick and is an overview of technology in use today. They discuss use in reading, arithmetic, writing, and ethics on the internet for educational learning to be effective. They state students should be educated for work that is known, but mostly for unknown jobs in the future. Armstrong and Warlick ask educators to not highlight old skills, but to emphases the new. The authors suggest technological resources to use in the classroom and give definitions for detailed technology use and how it applies. They have listed particular web sites to use for integration of their ideas presented.

Reaction:

I found the article informative for the time that it was written. Many of the links are not true working links, which is disappointing. The information from this article was dated though I believe the technology is the future and the advice for educators to be true especially today since we are in a world with information at our fingertips.

Armstrong, S., & Warlick, D. (2004, September 15). The New Literacy. Retrieved June 1, 2011, from TECH&LEARNING: http://www.techlearning.com/article/2806

Article 6: Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students

Summary:

The article is by Ruth Reynard who is an associate professor of education who has used blogging with university graduate students for five years. The article lists and explains the five most common blogging mistakes for university students. The first is ineffective contextualization when students do not understand the benefit of blogs. They need to have base knowledge of the content in order to decide how to use blogs. Second are unclear learning outcomes where the student should clearly analyze, syntheses, come up with new ideas, and then applies what they have learned in the blog. Third are misuse of the environment, it is not a wiki but a place for students to communicative their thoughts in. Fourth are illusive grading practices stating instructors need to have detailed rubrics for grading. And fifth are inadequate time allocations, in which her article suggests leaving the time allotted to be for the whole length of the course.

Reaction:

The article seems to hold good suggestions to encourage instructors to use blogging a choice in education. It would be useful for teachers to assess understanding of the curriculum in any subject since students post their own thoughts. I agree that it requires students to participate to a greater degree, and I do believe it shows students critical thinking. A negative side to these suggests are there is more time spent reading and it would mean instructors might have to spend many hours catching up on blogs at the end of the term.


Reynard, R. (08, October 01). Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students. Retrieved May 23, 2011, from Campus Technology: http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2008/10/Avoiding-the-5-Most-Common-Mistakes-in-Using-Blogs-with-Students.aspx?Page=1