Thursday, February 16, 2012

Reflections on my two first meetings with the students of my school Reading Club

Fascitaned at the idea that a group of 22 students from our school had created a reading club with the intention to reading a modern Greek novel and discuss issues raised in it, I decided to join the teachers who would help the students in the book exploration. My idea was to integrate technology into the students project hoping that in this way their work could be made more widely known to the educational community and a good example for other students to follow. 

When I first met the students, I informed them about my idea and their response was positive. I told them them that we could create a website where we could gather all our activities.  They would need to create an e-mail account so we could communicate more often than our face-to face meetings. They all seemed to be quite interested in trying this out. That was our first short meeting.

The time came for our club to make the first steps into the new venture. We arranged to meet in the computer lab so that students could have access to a computer and the internet. They were guided to open a Google account and an e-mail address. Those who already had one helped the others so in the end everyone had an e-mail address and sent me their first e-mail.

I had already created a website using the  Google sites  and I showed to the students what I had prepared. However, it was obvious that they were not familiar with working on a website. I asked them to create their personal blog where they could post their thoughts, views or reflections about the book and add the URL of their blog on the relevant page on the website. They agreed to do so. However I later discovered that I had overestimated their ability to realise such a task. I should have helped them more or I should have never asked them to do that. That was too much for a start.

On second thought, I would be satisfied if students started writing on the wiki. 

5 comments:

  1. Well, Marina, things never really work out as planned. I often say that students may be digital natives, but sometimes immigrants like us can work a lot better with several tools. They often need a lot of guidance. But the good thing about a project like this is that we can redefine it and reshape it. It's got to be flexible! I also had my share of disappointments this week. Check my blog!

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  2. Hi, Marina!
    As Luisa says, theer are always drawbacks, but just bu seeing your project and the way you planned it, I wouldn't be very surprised if you found out in no time that your students are already enriching the wiki and exchanging opinions throughtheir own blogs. Students sometimes need some final push to jumpt into the sea of collaboration, but once they are there, no one can take them out of the pool!!

    Show them
    http://www.goodreads.com/home?utm_content=logo&utm_medium=email&utm_source=2_newreleases
    A nice site where people share their like and dislikes about books... not bad as a source of ideas for your project.

    Hugs!!!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Ricard, for the encouragement and your suggestions! Let's hope that they will be inspired somehow in the end!

      Cheers!

      Marina

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  3. Hi Marina,

    I could understand how hard it is to have all of your students participate in online assignments.
    It is even harder to have their consistency in the online class.

    Hope that all of your students will love your online community.

    The

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  4. Hi Marina!

    First you took your first decision with your students to introduce technology to your plan,and they accepted your proposal In my opinion it was excellent they accepted, they didn't refuse your idea...So they need time and a little bit guidance from you, but don't feel sad,you must go on, your students and my students are in the same position, encourage them accept their mistakes and review with themselves till you reach your purpose with them....Let's do it!

    Orquidia

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