Thursday, November 15, 2007

Student Web Pages

For the past few months I have been reading and studying about using web 2.0 in the classroom. I am now in the process of involving students in the creation of authentic writing about their art on their own web page. They are very excited about the prospect of reaching a very wide audience with their art and writing. I am using a wiki space called PBWiki and it is very easy to use. I have created a site for each class I teach and each student in that class will have their own page to work on.
This week I gave them all a very brief overview if the project. I started by explaining that we would be using a piece if art that we have been working on from the beginning of the school year. I photographed the art and the students wrote about their art. I showed the students how I use paper and pencil to plan out my web pages and that was what they would be doing.
I have always had a difficult time getting students to write about their art in my class but with the prospect of writing to the web most students took off. Many wrote on both the front and back of their papers. Whoa what a hook!
Another feature on PBWiki is the comment section. This allows students and others to make comments about a page and the content of that page. I think that this will also be a powerful tool in getting the kids reading, thinking and writing.
Next week I will be showing the students and interactive net safety presentation. The district is asking that we do this and I think that it is a good idea to explain to the students what to look out for while working on the web.
This should be fun.

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