What Would Your Students Project On Their School?

Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Good Morning!

Hello! I am a computerized human voice reading what Mr. R. has typed in his blog.

Some people might think that my voice is too difficult to understand, but for people who are visually impaired (in other words their eyesight is poor or their computer screen is too small), this tool is another way to receive information. Now there will be less squinting at blurry letters or Mr. R. worrying about what font is the easiest to read. The message or stories that Mr. R. would like to share with the world will stay pretty much the same, whether you read the text or listen to me read it to you.

You, dear listener, have the choice to use me. Mr. R. would love to have your feedback on this new type of text-to-speech technology. If you have a free Blogger account, please leave your comments below.

On a more personal note: I would also love to have a name. Can you send your ideas to Mr. R. either through your wiki or posted comments? Thank you.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Blogging Power

A few weeks ago we started live blogging!

Last year's class also blogged, but it seemed to be mostly as an extension of literacy (what does line two, stanza two mean to you, what is the theme of this poem and why, etc.). The login went quickly since all the students had to do was go to this blog and begin. The only problem was that I was always mindful (maybe overly mindful) as the moderator for student safety since we were using a site that was more publicly accessible. As a result, many responses were not posted due to an overly cautious teacher, not to irrelevant/repetitive replies.

This year we have started earlier since there have been a few student who were trying to use the wiki as a blogging tool (my apologies to the space members who received wikimail messages that said (I'm on everyone. Is anyone there?"). We set our expectations (be respectful, be safe, be as accurate as possible with conventions, and be patient while Mr. R. reads all of the messages). We talked about what a moderator is and also how to respond to polling questions that I would post.

Result: Complete student engagement and some student frustration at not always having each response posted immediately.

I will share this tool with Science Council and anyone else who will listen!