Blogging

MY article this week was more on a personal level, than an educational level. Although, you can consider it educational through different point of views.
The article named, "Blog helps family stay connected", describes how in one certain family, a blog can be helpful to connect with family members from across the sea. A particular family, the St. Louis family, were able to move to Australia for a year and research, site see, and get educated on the facts of Australian life. Meanwhile, they had family back in the United States that missed them terribly and were sad to not be able to watch the children grow up. A friend of the family, 'Cindra Kennedy said, "I felt like I was there with them because each post was so real. There was no artifice, no glossing over, no stretching the truth."'(McDougall)
The blogging technology can be beneficial to education in the sense of educational researchers documenting their experiences for the classes back home to read and simulate that they were there learning and experiencing the same adventures.
Personally, I think blogging is such a great idea for educational purposes and personal purposes. On a personal level, it may be a great way to get your thoughts and opinions out there and receive anonymous tips and advice. On the educational level, like I said before, the students are able to learn and view adventures from afar.
It would have been more useful if the writer included more facts about the positives and negatives with blogging and education. Further research is recommended.
Here is the web link......
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/neighbours/story.html?id=34750188-85ea-4034-992b-196ce874139e

Virtual Field Trips

A Vermont school teacher, Amy Clapp, and a scientist, Max Holmes, traveled to Siberia as well as the Yukon to study the climate change and it’s affect on the world. Upon their return, Ms. Clapp’s classroom along with another classroom in Vermont, “participated in a video conference with students from Siberia to talk about a subject affecting them all--- global climate change.” (Harsha) These two classrooms shared the information that they learned with the other classrooms in Vermont. The sixth graders learned about the differences in the change of weather between continents. Fascination took over as the children visited a different country via virtual reality.
This is a perfect way for a science teacher to bring reality closer to home about the consequences of global warming. By taking a virtual field trip, they are able to discuss important issues to other children of the world and understand their points of view when it comes to weather and wildlife.
I think this way of teaching is very interesting. Technology has come a long way since I have been in elementary school. When I was in sixth grade, we tried to have pen pals from a third world country. However, because of ‘snail mail’, we were not able to keep the letters flowing from classroom to classroom. Discussing important subjects like global warming and endangered wildlife begin the shaping of a child’s life into becoming more of an adult. It also raises awareness to the children of today, so that they may care and fix what is left of tomorrow.
I feel like further research could have been added to further support the importance of the virtual field trips in the classrooms. The article should have had more research and less quotes from the students. The quotes convey emotion from the students, but further investigation would have supported the article with a little more “back bone”.
For further information, please use this link to the website article...

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=7629512&nav=4QcS