This morning I introduced my students to the idea of using Google Sites for reflective journaling as well as a place to collect artifacts. I am also going to make cameras available in my classroom writing center so that students can document any projects they are especially proud of through the year.
After we talked about online journaling and saving artifacts, we watched VoiceThreads that 5th grade students at the International School of Bangkok created as a culminating project. http://tinyurl.com/c95jfu
After viewing the students' work, the 4th graders were very excited to get started! We decided it would be best to start documenting immediately in preparation for a smaller VoiceThread project at the end of the semester.
Student concerns included:
- being confused about what to do
- not knowing what to write in the reflective journals
I assured the children that I, along with our Technology Coordinator will help them every step of the way. I also let them know that I will provide sentence frames for the reflective journals.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Great job! How are you managing the journals in Google Sites? Are you setting up a Google Apps Education Edition site for you and your students? You know, there are age restrictions for regular Google accounts. I'm just curious how you are managing the student accounts. I'm glad you found the VoiceThreads done by the students in Bangkok. I think they are well done, and the teacher has provided me with the prompts she used to help students reflect. You know, you can sign up for an Educator account in VoiceThread. It will give you more features that would normally have a fee.
ReplyDeleteI see by your website that you are wanting to set up an image site. Picasa is part of Google, so that might make it easier, but Flickr is the most popular site. It really depends on how you plan to use the site, and whether you want one for each student.
I have one suggestion for your website: put an introduction to parents about what you are doing with the students (beyond the goals, which you have already posted). Your narrative is very good.
Thanks for sharing your process. It is very helpful.
Hi Helen,
ReplyDeleteWe have set up Google Apps Education site with each child having an email address, so every student has their own Site. I have been accessing each site to upload artifacts. I would like to have them be able to do that themselves by the middle of the year.
The biggest thing for me to do is to remember to schedule time every week for them to access their accounts (email and ePortfolio).
I have another "official" Grade 4 site for the parents and have written about the ePortfolios in my weekly newsletter. I will send you the link to the other "official" site. When I started, I wasn't sure which to use because this is a new thing at my school and I wanted to test the water.
I see you got a GoogleApps for education site set up. Great! Of course, I can't see it because you have set up a "walled garden" for your students and are requiring accounts to see their work, which for 4th graders is highly appropriate. You could use your other "public" Google site to just share your process with parents.
ReplyDeleteHow long did it take you to get it set up?
Looking forward to following your progress!