I think it's funny how you said that kids ended up using the WIKI as an instant messenger. I constantly have to tell my kids, "If it's not a comment that moves the conversation forward, I'm deleting it." One thing that has helped this for me with kids commenting on each other's post and blog is giving them prompts to copy and paste. I usually give my kids a list of 5 prompts they can use to respond to other's work. They usually include: - I like when you said __________ can you tell me more? - You made a good point when __________ what in the story gave you that idea? - You did a really good job with ______________ , how did you come up with that idea? - One thing I noticed was ___________ I would like to tell you that...
This kind of got the students thinking about their audience and how they could get more replies.
Just an idea to get the conversation moving forward. :)
Lacey, I like the idea of giving the students prompts to help write blog posts. I know one of the things I hate in most classes is having to respond to discussion forums when the instructor has made the initial posts requirements to be "regurgitate information from the book" style postings. Especially with K-12 these seem like reasonable questions to pose. What does worry me, and maybe it’s just me being cynical, is the statement “This kind of got the students thinking about their audience and how they could get more replies.” While I agree wholeheartedly that students need to think about their target audience when writing, I’m worried that we’re moving to a very open, privacy-free social communication structure in our society where people’s communication style is based on the need to be validated and gain social media popularity as a primary way to validate self. Is the student “worth more” if they get more replies to their posting? Is a student’s writing ability based on their ability to purposely add in hooks where another person could respond easily to what they said? I know this is becoming important in our 24/7 group-think culture, but I’m not sure it’s a direction I would like to see everything go.
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ReplyDeleteHi Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny how you said that kids ended up using the WIKI as an instant messenger. I constantly have to tell my kids, "If it's not a comment that moves the conversation forward, I'm deleting it." One thing that has helped this for me with kids commenting on each other's post and blog is giving them prompts to copy and paste. I usually give my kids a list of 5 prompts they can use to respond to other's work. They usually include:
- I like when you said __________ can you tell me more?
- You made a good point when __________ what in the story gave you that idea?
- You did a really good job with ______________ , how did you come up with that idea?
- One thing I noticed was ___________ I would like to tell you that...
This kind of got the students thinking about their audience and how they could get more replies.
Just an idea to get the conversation moving forward. :)
Lacey, I like the idea of giving the students prompts to help write blog posts. I know one of the things I hate in most classes is having to respond to discussion forums when the instructor has made the initial posts requirements to be "regurgitate information from the book" style postings. Especially with K-12 these seem like reasonable questions to pose. What does worry me, and maybe it’s just me being cynical, is the statement “This kind of got the students thinking about their audience and how they could get more replies.” While I agree wholeheartedly that students need to think about their target audience when writing, I’m worried that we’re moving to a very open, privacy-free social communication structure in our society where people’s communication style is based on the need to be validated and gain social media popularity as a primary way to validate self. Is the student “worth more” if they get more replies to their posting? Is a student’s writing ability based on their ability to purposely add in hooks where another person could respond easily to what they said? I know this is becoming important in our 24/7 group-think culture, but I’m not sure it’s a direction I would like to see everything go.
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