DIGITAL LEARNING LOGS
Introduction
My students did all of their writing in a writing notebook. By January, it was chock full of their delicious brainstorms, scripts, poems, and stories. It was a powerful tool for me and the students to track our progress over the year. Inevitably though, writing notebook would get left on the bus or get mangled in some unforeseen event. The idea behind the digital learning log is to create a notebook online so it never gets lost. More than that though, digital notebooks allow students incorporate multimedia to illustrate their points, show their growth over time, and is a great resource if students want to build a portfolio for college or a job. Let's look at some ideas to engage students and then check out some student blogs.
Take the pre-assessment before you start.
Take the pre-assessment before you start.
Exploration 1: What Do Students Want?
Ten years ago, we began a research project by asking both teachers and students two simple questions: What kind of work do you find totally engaging? and What kind of work do you hate to do? Almost immediately, we noticed distinct patterns in their responses. |
- Read the rest of Strengthening Student Engagement: What Do Students Want (and what really motivates them)? by Richard Strong, Harvey F Sliver, and Amy Robinson.
Exploration 2: Re-Engaging Students
Ten Simple Strategies for Re-engaging Students by Andrew Marcinek
Last week I observed a tired classroom. My English 101 class looked bored and uninterested in the discussion we were having. I observed one student intently working on a crossword puzzle. He was engaged. Another student was sneaking a peek at her mobile device every so often and then quickly looked back in my direction. She was almost engaged. Some students were simply staring at me so intently that I assumed they had painted eyes on the exterior of their eyelids. |
- Read the rest of Andrew Marcinek's article Ten Simple Strategies for Re-engaging Students
- Based Andrew's Marcinek's Strategies to Re-Engage, evaluate which tool best accomplishes these goals. Take the Tools to Re-Engage Quiz.
Exploration 3: Visit Student Learning Logs
Let's check out some student blogs and portfolios. Use this scoring guide to look for certain elements on each blog. Here are some key concepts to keep in mind for student publishing:
- Only first names should be used
- Personal information such as school, address, phone number, friends & families full names should not be used
- Edit for mechanical errors
- Cite resources when borrowing others content