Blogging!

I found a Quote which seemed to sum up my ideas thus far about blogging. I never know what to say or write. My thoughts are not really vastly intelligent, nor that sought after. I could see how a blog might be useful if I actually had a point to it, like if it was for my students or a class I was teaching, or if I was living in Antartica and wanted to keep my friends and family updated on my going-ons. However I see my friends and family-in law all the time, and talk to my family on the phone fairly regularly, so I have yet to find a point to this blogging thing. I could rant on about how much I would like to be back on Vancouver Island, but that would just put me into a negative, feel-bad for myself mood, and that will not get me anywhere. But since I need to start blogging on a weekly basis, I really need to find something to blog about. I am open for ideas. I might shut them down as cheesy, but I am still open to hearing them.

470 paper proposal.

As with the other three academic postings on this blog, this one will be no different. for our research paper for 470, I have decided to look into plagiarism and the ease of cheating in our super-connected world. At first I thought that I would simply just plagiarize a similar paper to see how easy it really is. But then I decided that wouldn't fly and the shame would follow my perfectionist self for the rest of life. Then I thought I would write a "how to plagiarize/cheat" manual. but then I figured there are quite a few of those out there. So instead I am doing this the academic way of researching the topic and see what discussions have or are taking place regarding the issues. like any university paper I will probably first start by identifying the problem, and then discuss the severity of the problem. I will look at what is the issue, how can they be resolved and why they need to be resolved. It would be interesting to know and understand a true plagiarisers ideas regarding this, but most people wouldn't admit to it. I will look into how to address these issues with students. What a teacher can and should do about cheating, and finally privacy issues regarding cheating as well as finding out if a student is cheating. That's about it, and I am sure that you are all REALLY excited to read it when I am done. By the way, I may have plagiarized some of these questions from the class folder on blackboard, but then again I may have thought them up all by myself.

PS. I have already learned so much about plagiarism just from this post, including how to use spell check and how to spell plagiarism.

Because I'm a keener

Because I'm a keener, I am posting this a day early. So for our class we had to either edit or add something to a wikipedia page. I started by looking at the page for my hometown, Campbell River, BC. Some links then took me to a neighbouring island, Quadra, where I have spent numerous summers. They had a link there to one of the settlements on the south side of the Island, but there was no information in it. The link was a stub. so I expanded it with information that I found and information from my brain. I created an entire paragraph to put on that page where there had been nothing before. Pretty impressive I know.

So here is what I did.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quathiaski_Cove,_British_Columbia
Cheers!

Blooms Taxonomy

Blooms Taxonomy:

Knowledge: Three ways that blogs can be used in education are:
1. Class announcement and information: If a student has missed a class, they can see what they missed online.
2. Group projects: students can use a blog to work on group projects on their own time.
3. Sharing group projects, videos, pictures, etc.
4. Handing in assignments: Save paper.

Comprehension: Three reasons why teachers should integrate blogs into their classroom are:
1. Incorporating technology into the classroom.
2. Incorporating students’ interests and skills into the classroom.
3. Allows for easy access of information both in school and outside of school.

Application: Three ways in which we can use blogs in our teaching and professional development would be:
1. When teaching, can use this link to post videos and documentaries that I would want my students to watch.
2. Posting and sharing resources with other teachers.
3. Forming new ways to connect with students and engage them in their learning.

Analysis: The use of blogs in education is better than the use of static websites, because blogs are trusted in their content and author. Also Information can be added, deleted and co-created between the creator and followers of a blog. Blogs also tend to be updated more often.

Synthesis: Blogging could change your role as an educator because it opens the doors of communication between students and teachers, and allows students to access information at home. Blogging also gives a teacher more access to their students work, as well as more chances to provide feedback to their students learning.

Evaluation: Three potential disadvantages of using blogs in education are:
1. Students might cease coming into class if they can access information at their homes.
2. Has the potential to limit face to face interaction and discussion in a classroom.
3. Students who do not have regular access to a computer, or a home computer might become out of the loop
4. Potential increase in plagiarism due to ease of access to information.

About Me

Because a post entitled 'this is my first blog' is boring, this is about me instead. I am from Vancouver Island where flowers are beginning to bloom and the temperature rarely reacher -5 degrees celcius. I greatly dislike the cold winter weather of this province, but I do like the Rough Riders, so my initiation is complete. That's about it for now.