I had an interesting time with a group of students from the alt ed program in my school. These students were in the grade 9-12 range but firmly immersed in the alt ed special programs. The alt ed focus is to prepare the students for eventual survivial in the community and eventual independence from care givers (parents, family, guardians etc). As a community organization operating in the school (Mon thru Fri) for the purpose of helping youth in transition to work and the community it was an excellent opportunity for us to contribute to the learning needs of these students. This group was a challenge for any teacher in that their interests were far outside of the classroom and academic learning, yet they had a vitality and eagerness to engage as much as any student I see in my resource room.

I wanted to have these students do a quick on line learning style quiz which I thought might be insightful for them and then have a discussion on what they learned about themselves. My plan fell apart when the shortcut I had placed on each pc desktop wouldn’t open up to my selected web site. I had used my furl bookmark to make the shortcut, not the right move! It would take too long to re-direct these students (and try everyone’s patience) so I chose to have them go to the new edu blog site and sign up for a learner blog.

What a time I had. These students struggled through the usual sign up hurdles but eventually they had their first blog. One of the 8 students was familiar with a blog – MSN my spaces, but the rest had no experience or awareness of blogs. At the end of my time with them, I thought they, to different degrees, grasped my main message that they could connect (link) their blog to their friend’s blogs and do more interesting stuff than what MSN chat could do. It was only a 45 min. experience with them and I wasn’t sure what impact if any, our time together had.

I didn’t think our session was very significant as I didn’t plan it well (back up plan only) but I was pleased when one of the students came by with a card signed by his class that thanked me for helping them set up their blogs. They had put a nice reference on the cover, calling my Community Resource & Learning Room a blog room and me a blog guy. In retrospect, I saw that the students were engaged with their work and were having a good time setting up their blogs.

The experience I had with these students led me to think again about using blogs in schools. Giving these youth an opportunity to blog and introducing them to connecting up with their friend’s blogs and other sites was a simple excersize, yet I believe something happenned with these students that was positive. They accomplished the registration which for them was quite a challenge; they chose their personal presentation template; they composed their first post and saw it in their blog; a few of them linked their friend’s blog to their blog; some of them e-mailed their blog url to their hotmail account; they came back the next day via their card and referred to the blog room. Since then, a few of them have dropped by my room to socialize and log back on to their blog.

Despite major learning challenges and social developmental issues, these students have a capacity for networking and connecting with others. These are strengths and to varying degrees, they demonstrated these strengths through this brief 45 min. exposure to blogs. I’m following George Siemens connectivism, Jay Cross informal learning and Stephen Downes article on elearning 2 and my experience certainly supports what they are saying. I found this excerpt on the blog of proximinal development – teaching.blogging.learning site authored by Etienne Wenger

What does look promising are inventive ways of engaging students in meaningful practices, of providing access to resources that enhance their participation, of opening their horizons so they can put themselves on learning trajectories they can identify with, and of involving them in actions, discussions, and reflections that make a difference to the communities that they value.

Participation engenders competence.

My experience with my alt ed student echoed closely to what he is saying. When I saw his article title Participation as Competence, I thought he had “hit the proverbial nail on the head” and captured much of what I am thinking about with blogs and students.

I’ll continue pushing blogs and other ICT tools when ever the opportunity strikes me, which is pretty often. Thanks to all those who are paddling in similiar directions.

Brent Uncategorized