Blogging to transform ideas

By Aaron Hansen
Background
Province=curriculum Division=literacy for life School=expository writing CIT=blogging to transform Me=social media to collaborate Reflection November Anecdotal Read the blogs daily Artifact itself (blog)- #s Baseline = simple posts/ comments (#) Most recent = better posts/ comments Ongoing data collection and instant feedback Teacher questions and suggestions in order to scaffold desired performance initially Students police themselves: need more details elaborate that was not an appropriate response how do you feel about?

Methods
Surveys September November

Theories
Vygotsky Zone of Proximal Development Constructivism Farmer Social Constructivism Dynamic Online Communities Downes and Siemens Connectivism

Results
The writings on the blog Comments/ posts looked at chronologically Power of questions and clarifications Majority of students experienced growth in posts and comments Reflections reveal improvement Students moved up at least one level (2-3, 3-4)

Conclusions
We will continue blogging Survey reveals that students see an improvement in their writing through blogging Once organization and conventions improve, ideas will be transformed more regularly Continue to blog so that a 3 that was a 2 will soon be a 4 By January, open blog to another grade five gifted class Link to other blogs and references- individual RSS feed

September Posts
1 2 3 4

November Posts
1 2 3 4

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September Comments
1 2 3 4

November Comments
1 2 3 4