Blogging Activities--Tuesday, Sept. 1

post reflects the information found at:http://technospudprojects.motime.com/

Title of blog: "What's In A Name Online Project"

This particular blog appears to be set up as a project run by Technospud--located in California, in 2003. 4th grade & up teachers could register their classrooms to be a part of this online project. The blog's author posted 'questions of the day' and allowed students/teachers from 50 schools all over the country (and Canada) to participate in responding with their own answers and additional questions or comments. All of the questions were related to their school's information i.e. origins of its name, location, population of the city, etc. While most of the responses came from the teachers themselves, some of the answers came from students. My guess is that most of the classes collaborated together through research/discussion to come up with their answers that the teacher would post to the questions.

By generating these questions, the blog allowed teachers to spark conversation in their personal classrooms and encourage researching on interesting topics . The blog also aided in learning by creating easy access to the same information of different schools all over the country. It cultivated relationships between schools and provided a new realm of communication that some students had never been exposed to.

All of the questions posted required researching. This allows instructors to discuss the different ways in which information can be found--encyclopedias, newspapers, interviews, the internet. Understanding of and utilizing all types of resources is a valuable lesson that can be learned through this online project.

Two performance indicators that would be met if I were to use this blog in my future classroom:

1. Facilitate and Inspire student learning and creativity
d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

5. Engage in professional growth and leadership
c. evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.