So, I am sitting here wondering how I can use blogs effectively in a chemistry classroom. I was wondering if there was a way to get students to use the blog to voice questions that they have and ways to get other students to offer help. Are there any sites where students are helping students make sense of difficult material? I know that I can have students respond to readings in the science area. I also know that students can work on their writing in the science area but are there other things that the students can do with blogs. I do not want them to "always do the same stuff" only electronically now.
Astronomy seems like a more natural course for the blogs but after trying to set them up, I have given up for the time being. I experienced a "set back" with the blog accounts that my students would be using. The Macs had some unexplained problems and the other computer labs are used by the same teachers when I need them. I do not know if there is an easy fix to this problem.
I think that there is so much going on that I am struggling with doing something else new.
3 comments:
I think the use of a class blog for a question & answer forum could be very effective. Maybe students could e-mail you with questions that you could post, and other students could comment with answers. My fear would be that no one would use it, but you could certainly give credit both for asking and answering questions on the blog.
I did get Netscape setup in W203 on all but about 2 or 3 computers (Tim came in before I finished). So you should be able to get them into Blogger via Netscape instead of IE in W203 if you want. As I recall, that older version of IE was the problem that day - Netscape should work fine.
I have similar technological concerns. I am especially worried about STUDENTS using technological problems as an excuse for not doing their work. Simply printing out a paper is a problem for at least one student every time a paper is due, and although I don't accept this as an excuse for not turning a paper, I don't want to deal with students telling me that their internet is down, or that the computer lab was full, or other such annoying excuses. Perhaps our group can come up with some blogging ground rules.
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