UMPI Faculty Blog

Blogging with students can add a lot to a college classroom. As a project-based learning tool, it can serve as a forum for applying concepts from class, practicing disciplinary-specific writing skills, and has the advantage of being a published, shareable resource that students can use on a resume, or to support professional portfolios. Whether students are creating their own unique blogs, or you have a class blog that students are adding to, blogs can help you meet a variety of teaching and learning goals.

I tried something really scary, with my Educational Technology in the Classroom students! I took a risk with teaching an instructional protocol that I have never taught before–it was inspiring, but complex in the number of steps that were required in the discussion rounds. I am hoping that sharing this post will not only help model peer critique as a strategy in the classroom–but also that debriefing new experiences with students is priceless for us as instructors, and for student metacognition. The video posted from this class demonstrates the kick-off/intro of the protocol, and the debrief session at the end. 

I love when students are able to synthesize their learning and reflect on both what they learned and how they will apply what they have learned to their futures as educators. Previously, I have asked students to create metacognitive, narrated slide decks (with prompts such as “discuss specific instructional and assessment ‘moves’ that you will make as a result of learning in this course”. It occurred to me that students might benefit from hearing each other’s learning and application (future actions as a teacher) as well.