K12 Conference

I had a pretty good experience at the K 12 conference. The first session I attended was on using blogs in the classroom. Although this teacher used blogs to develop writing skills for beginning writers (first graders) her idea can easily be adapted to a high school classroom. A blog can be used as an online journal to promote constant writing practice. Students can be required to comment on classmates blogs to give constructive criticism about their writing skills. Students can also be put in small groups for this project. Using blogs can be useful for creative writing practice and feedback (including workshopping). There are a million different ways to structure the use of a blog into an English classroom!

I also attended a session on new literacies and adolescent children. The main point was that children are taught at school mostly through paper literacy, but at home and in life computer literacy manifests in a different form. Honestly, I got very confused trying to figure out exactly what it was that the teachers did. There were two different classes, one with more integrated technology used for projects. There were just so many parts to their plan that I had a really hard time following. Mostly, though, the class that learned technology had a more meaningful learning experience.

Finally, I attended a session on educational gaming. This session gave teachers a few bad things to do in the classroom with games and some good ideas to use. Mostly, what makes educational games a viable learning experience is the teacher's ability to conect the experience and reflect what was learned in a meaningful way. It also suggested that teachers learn some game design and get connected with other teachers who are gaming.

Overall, it was a mixed experience. I really enjoyed my first session. I thought the presentation was well thought out and beneficial. I had so many great ideas after I attended, even though the example expereince wasn't even close to the age range I will be working with. The other two didn't seem as simply explained, so I feel more confused after I listened to the sessions.