This Week in Ontario Edublogs

From the Ontario Edubloggers’ Livebinder, there certainly was a great collection of interesting blog posts this week.  

The Power of Feedback

Konrad Glogowski dug into the concept of Feedback and its purpose.  

Specifically, he dealt with the three questions above.  I think that, so often, feedback is thought of as the “what” that is returned to the student from the teacher.  Instead, Konrad sees feedback as fodder to inspire the students to answer the questions by themselves.  

It seems to me that this makes for deeper reflection about the whole exercise and makes the question “What did I get?” completely irrelevant.  It’s a good post and worthy of sharing at your next A&E session.

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Thoughts on Creativity

Do you ever get to a blog post, read it, get inspired to reply and then find out that someone already has expressed your thoughts?  That happened to me in Sheila Stewart’s post about Creativity.

Sheila got us thinking about technology and creativity.  When I read it, I smiled because of a moronic comment that I’d read recently from someone else who thought that by purchasing an iPad, his students would automatically become creative.

I think Carolyn nails it in her reply.  I really like her use of the word amplify.  I can’t think of a better way to describe the impact of technology.

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Part 7: “What Can You See?” and China!

This is becoming a regular addition to my reading.  It started by reading Angie Harrison’s blog post about the “What Can You See” project.  It’s a simple concept – look out your classroom window and share what you see!  It’s made some interesting connections for my reading.

This week’s episode takes me back to Jocelyn Schmidt’s blog where they’ve made a connection to China.

Doesn’t this just dovetail nicely to Carolyn’s comment?  Technology just amplifies the experience for those students.  It’s an amazing opportunity for those students.  The parents must just be in awe of what is happening.

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It Equals Miracles

I generally start my reading day by dropping by Paul Cornies’ blog for his daily collection of quotes.  I was curious to see what he would put together for St. Valentine’s Day.  Something really mushy, I bet.

I was wrong.

This quote really worked on me.  This could easily describe my after school and weekend activities from my childhood.  We were never home – we were gone on our bikes creating adventures all the time.

I’m absolutely old enough to be able to confess that I never had video games or a computer or even, gulp, cable television.  But I did have lots of books and great friends always ready for a new experience.

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Goodbye Worksheets, Hello Content Creation

I’ll take thinking like this anytime. Is it sad that Mrs. Wideen actually had a worksheet to use in the “before” picture?

Using the Explain Everything application, the students turn the activity from a static paper activity to one done with their portable technology.  On the surface, there may not seem to be a big deal.  After all, the instructions and the procedure for the math part is pretty consistent.

However, by turning it into a story, a new dimension to the lesson appears.  The students aren’t simply answering questions and then moving on.  They’re actually having to create a story on the fly and tell it.  It requires setting, organization, and a bigger purpose since the end result won’t be a completed sheet of paper – it’s a movie to be shared and relived.

It also reinforces the important notion that mathematics isn’t just an exercise.  It’s a story that’s created by computational thinking.

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Thanks to all of the bloggers above for great sharing this week.  Make sure you check them all out or the complete collection of Ontario Edubloggers.

If you’re an Ontario Edublogger and not on the list, please consider adding your blog using the form on the opening page.

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