Sharing online

Did you know that students can share their ideas with the world? Well, I don't know about you, but I didn't. They can share what they are learning and get feedback from teachers and peers around the globe with the click of a button. Case-in-point: Mr. Kilcoyne's year 5 class blog. As an example, these students learn vocabulary words in class and get to share stories that they write using those new vocab words online. They may or may not ever get feedback, but there are teachers and other classes who are following them and see what they publish. And, as you can see (if you clicked on the link I gave you), we can see it too. And we can give these kids encouraging and constructive feedback (such as my little comment here.)

When kids can share their learning, it is motivating to them! Sure, it might be a bit scary, especially at first, but it lets them know that they can have an impact. They can share their ideas with the world, and the world can hear them! Even if they are from a tiny little farming community like Two Dot, Montana, their voice can go WAY beyond there.

The same is true of teachers, which I didn't know either. They can share resources online (#banddirector) so that other teachers can easily steal ideas from one another! For example, I could find some resources and tips for a successful marching band season (an area of my content area that I am by no means an expert in!) And with websites like Twitter, one cool thing is you don't even have to sign up to benefit from this. Well, if you don't sign up, you can't contribute, and that would be pretty lame to only give and never take. But it's possible. If you (like me) are not quite ready to be an active member of that particular online community but are searching for ideas, that's a resource for you.

Photo by Simon Willison