That is the question. I have wanted to start a personal blog for a long time now. I am fascinated by blogs and can easily get swept into their allure. From scrapbooking, to the latest dish on Grey's Anatomy, to parenting, to educational technology to global warming-it's so interesting to find "connections" with other people's ideas.
Alas, I have yet to find the time to dedicate to that. Not to mention, I will not only stress over the content, but the design, and I'm not sure I have the time or skills to mess with design issues. So, I will be dedicating my blog to my research into the use of one on one laptops and its impact on student learning. I am new to my district this year, although I have been a classroom teacher for 12 years. This is also my first experience in a true "middle school" setting. For the last four years, the 7th graders each have had access to a laptop for the year, and I have decided to look into how student achievement has been affected.
Literature suggests that similar programs have promoted a sense of excitement about learning, a greater interest in writing and student projects, cooperation and community, less attendance and discipline issues, and increased test scores. I am particularly interested in students not only learning to use technology, but in learning HOW to use it to learn. Does that make sense? Through my research, I hope to discover whether the same is true for my 7th graders.
Stay tuned then, for more to come about laptops and learning. Please feel free to offer any comments, insights, data, you may have on the topic.
4 comments:
Laptops and Learning is an appropriate topic, not too narrow and not too general.
Ann,
I also teach 7th grade. For my project I am using the laptops to access my Moodle site for students. I teach science what subject to you teach? http://middleschoolmoodle.blogspot.com/
Jessica
Ann, this is really in response to your first post to me. No, I didn't scan in a piece of scrapbook paper. I actually found this background online and changed the code in a layout to use it. As for the picture, I uploaded one to www.photobucket.com, and then I used the URL option to place my photo on my profile. Let me know if you need any assistance. Hope that helps.
Jessica-
I teach exploratory Spanish and look forward to seeing what you are doing with your Moodle site! Thanks for posting!
Ann
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