Boy, why couldn't I have gone to a school like this? That was my first reaction to looking at all of the introductory material on the school. These kids have access to 3D printing, coding, and robotics. We don't even have access to that kind of technology at the college where I work.
Before looking at the blogs, I checked out the eLearning page. I particularly liked how they included a technology help guide for parents. This is an extremely helpful resource for parents who may be a little less comfortable with technology. I also noticed that they added a help guide for making blogging comments for parents. Encouraging parents to make comments on the class blogs gives them an easy forum for getting involved in their child's learning. The blogging format makes it easy for the information to be shared with friends, family, and anyone else who may be interested in the progress that each student is making. Additionally, this help guide included guidelines for what should be included in the comments. This helps the parents who may be feeling lost or may not know how to support their child's learning experience. It gives them a general rule of thumb for what a post should look like as well as ideas about what they should comment on. The guide also encourages parents to include positive comments. This advice is important for those students who may be struggling. Comments of a negative tone may make the students feel even less confident.
The blogs themselves are really neat. Blogging gives the kids a chance to comment about a lesson while it is fresh in their mind. It also gives them a chance to relate a lesson to something they have seen or heard about before. For example, I particularly liked the little girl who took a picture of her lunch and asked her parents not to send her so much plastic with her lunch. This was in response to a lesson that they had at school about the problems of using too much plastic. Additionally, the teachers were able to use the blog to reiterate what the class homework was for the night. This could be really helpful for kids who are struggling or for those who are just trying to get out of doing it.
The one thing that I noticed was that there didn't seem to be that many comments. I wonder if this is related to how much time a parent with a full-time job and other children has to keep up with the blog. Additionally, there were way more site visits then there were comments. We read an article earlier in the course about students who just lurk on blogs. They read the blog, but chose not to comment. Most of them considered this participation in the course. These parents are choosing to read, but not comment. At least they are still learning about what their child is doing even if they are not specifically commenting on the activities in the classroom.
I completely agree; why couldn't schools be like this when we were students? I always try to think of what I liked and would have liked when it comes to my classroom. I try not to forget that student mindset. I didn't explore the eLearning page since I got distracted by the classroom blogs. It is always helpful that they provided a guide for parents on how to interact with blog. Many times parents are forgotten when it comes to technology so I really like that the school took the time to create a guide for parents.
ReplyDeleteI do go to a school with course offerings like this (now), but since the technologies just didn't exist when I was young, I wouldn't have thought to wish for them (I did love my Oregon Trail days, though). I do find it fascinating, though, that this school has decided to push its relevance with an active blog. Most districts I know of in the U.S. have static websites, but not blogs. I wonder how feasible a blog of this nature would be in a district with multiple elementary, middle, and high schools. Getting permission from District, alone, would be a feat, much less convincing an already overloaded staff to contribute!
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