Eclectic Technology

Harvard University has a website on visual thinking that is designed for educators and students. Silvia Tolasano, the author of Langwitches Blog, has taken a number of their routines and created visualizations that would be useful for students, visualizations that you might post on your walls or provide copies of for students to put in their binders. 
There is one twist to a number of these  visualizations...they are specific for blogging. The image above includes two of the visualizations. In the post you will find an additional five routines. You will also find an infographic of all the routines within the post available as an infographic

To go directly to the site at Harvard use this link: http://www.old-pz.gse.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html/. And if you are wondering why you might use visible thinking routines consider this statement from the website on visual thinking (at Harvard): 

"Visible Thinking has a double goal: on the one hand, to cultivate students' thinking skills and dispositions, and, on the other, to deepen content learning."

But times have changed. Many resources that were blocked in the past are not being used by teachers on a daily basis. This post explores if the same should be true for student work. Is it time to allow student work to be public on the web?

Does an authentic audience improve student writing? Will students try harder if they share their work? These are two of the questions explored in this post. Along with the Pros of Posting Online this post includes the following areas:

* Tips for Allowing Public Posting

* Let Students Know

* Have and Review Guidelines and Rules (including sample guidelines)

* Get Parent Permission (including 18 examples)

* Encourage Sharing and Commenting

* Give Students Freedom

* Be Public Without Fear of the Public

* Don't Stress Over Moderating Everything

What are your thoughts? Do you think that your students would be more engaged if they were allowed to write to a larger audience of their peers and receive feedback from them? There are a number of comments on the original post and you may also learn from these responses.

This infographic explores the use of social media in schools. We know that teenagers (and tweens) are actively engaged with social media. As educators how can we leverage this use and bring it into our classrooms. We know our students are actively using this technology outside of school...so why do so many schools ban it? This post explores reasons why we should look at this issue.

The infographic is divided into a number of sections.

* If You can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em - Social Networking Stats

* Benefits of Social Media in the Classroom - a look at Student Benefits, Educator Benefits and Parental Benefits

* Examples of Social Media in the Classroom: Looking at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Blogging

* Social Media Pilot Program: Learn about a program in Portland, Oregon and the difference it made

Resources are also provided at the bottom of the infographic.

Richard Byrne provides a comparision chart comparing five blogging platforms in eight key elements in this post. If you are considering starting a blog for yourself or your students this post will provide information that may help you in making the best decision.