Communicating Beyond the Classroom
Comments(5) What did you do in class today?
No, I’m not writing about casual conversation a parent might have with their child while waiting in the fast food drive through. I hear it all the time in my classroom as students who share a common teacher hastily finish a homework assignment in a few free moments before the bell. Students talk to each other about their classes, their teachers, their assignments, probably more than we teachers imagine. I’d like to eavesdrop on a portion of that conversation beyond the casual comments, the text messages, the Facebook random postings. The trick, as always, is how to generate a learning vehicle where students feel ownership, yet which the teacher simultaneously feels addresses the curriculum.
I’d like to create a class website for Blue Tube, the weekly video magazine I sponsor at Paris High. I’d like for this site to serve (in ranked order) as a place:
1. Students in my classes can plan and develop features. I’d like for it to be a place they can brainstorm, set calendar dates, advertise for help, and generally do all the things they usually do in the video production process.
2. I, as their sponsor, can monitor progress, provide feedback, and get a more immediate handle on the creative process instead of waiting on face-to-face interaction.
3. Students not in my classes can contribute to the show either through feedback or physical contribution to the show.
4. Casual observers can provide feedback and find out what we’re doing, especially, when we go online and maybe generate a following beyond the PHS community.
I’m not sure what web-based vehicle I want to use: blogs, forums, wikis, igoogle, or some mixture of emerging technologies. I also want to involve students in the process of creating this tool. The enemy, as always, will be time.