Thing #4 Blog Uses in Education - Part 2

I enjoyed reading the blogs listed on the 23 Things Discovery Exercise. I read more than five, so I chose five to write about in this blog entry.

Dan Meyer's Blog post, "Why I Don't Assign Homework" put my own opinions into print. Those that CAN do the work will do homework. Those that NEED to do it won't. According to Mr. Meyer, this attitude is doubled in low economic families. From my experience, I agree with him. In an update to his blog, Mr. Meyer said he has changed his opinion somewhat on not giving homework assignments. Since his class is taught in a secondary block schedule setting, he felt 48 hours in between class instruction time was too long to optimally enhance student retention of knowledge. Therefore, he gives two problems for "homework." One is "tough" and the other is "tougher."

Weblogg-ed (Will Richardson): Why Can't We Do This? Hmmm.... plastic or cloth? At first, this entry puzzled me. Why did the instructors include a blog about plastic vs. cloth grocery bags? After reading it 3 or 4 times, I realized the point was not so much the content as it was the style. This blog spoke a lot with a few words. In fact, the majority of the blog was a quote from the New York Times. It was interesting.

Mrs. Edmison's Class: Questions for One of Our Favorite Authors: Grace Lin It was good to see students' writing in a blog. The author's response provided a fabulous opportunity for the students to get up close and personal with her. She shared things with them that I imagine they will always remember.

Mark’s Edtech Blog: Is this SSR 2.0? I love Mark's approach to a relatively new idea… let kids read blogs during SSR/DEAR time. Their interest in reading is higher. They can read and respond to things written by peers. Writing and reading go hand-in-hand. You can’t write without reading what you wrote.

Cool Cat Teacher: Spies Like Us Vicki Davis is thought-provoking author with a deep insight into her subjects. It is a bit scary to read her interpretation of kids' use of technology in schools. If we don't make it OK to use cell phones and Internet, kids will do it anyway. Wouldn't it be better if we as educators acknowledge the technological path we're on and teach students a safe and intelligent way to use it.