Project Blogs – A Student’s path to success!!

Project Blogs -A Student's Path to Success!!

“You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.” – Jim Stovall

To aid in planning for student success in I intend to develop a Blog requirement for students to publish and collaborate on Engineering projects. Blog posts would include; their progress, stumbling blocks, achievements, and reflections.  Each project would include prompts to post or check-in at certain phases of a project and then a final post for project completion.  The prompts would include a review prompt where students would reflect on their own progress, offer comments to their peers, and celebrate their achievements.  It has been shown in multiple studies that “reflective observation is an important component of the experiential learning process. It provides students the opportunity to think about hands-on experiences, thus allowing them to draw meaning that will guide their subsequent behaviors and the way they approach new learning conceptualizations and experiences” (Ferguson, 2016).   This would also help the students in meeting several ISTE student standards for Innovative Designer, Creative Communicator, and Global Collaborator. Students will be responsible for working through an established design process to solve problems, communicate with each other using digital media, and collaborate with their peers to achieve success (ISTE, 2016). While on their digital journey students will be taught and expected to demonstrate “digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information” (ISTE Standard 4, 2016).

The Engineering Design course is a CTE elective option for high school students in grades 9 – 12.  Students use the Engineering Design process and 3D computer aided design software to model solutions and ideas in response to multiple prompts and challenges.  Each project or prompt is progressively harder and builds on their problem solving and modeling skills.  In posting and sharing their progress and ideas using a blog my digital native students will have more authentic learning experience by being able to collaborate with each other in an online environment. “Studies found that students who have high levels of group identification and collaboration in courses supported by blogging tools reported more favorable learning outcomes” (Ifinedo & Usoro, 2016).  

In addition to working in real time with their classmates students will have access to all past work and be able to share with the other classes. It has been demonstrated that through the use of classroom blogging “students benefited by improving their overall learning experience from collaborative effort of peers in the context of blog use” (Ifinedo & Usoro, 2016).   In providing an online forum for collaboration and to promote student reflection, it will allow me as the instructor to confirm and clarify student’s conceptual understanding of the material (ISTE Standard 1, 2016).   Outside collaboration with industry representatives and the community is also much easier to encourage and promote with this type of online blog (ISTE Standard 3, 2016).  The program will also be able to achieve a higher level of transparency with the community including parents and administrators.  Students will have access to a wealth of knowledge and input that is not available in the plastic in-box on the teacher's desk.  To resurrect a tired and true slogan - Together Everyone Achieves More! 

References

Ifinedo, P., & Usoro, A. (2016). Students' intentions to continue using blogs to learn: a socio-cognitive perspective. Computing And Information Systems, (3),

Sharma, P., & Tietjen, P. (2016). Examining Patterns of Participation and Meaning Making in Student Blogs: A Case Study in Higher Education. American Journal Of Distance Education, 30(1), 2-13. doi:10.1080/08923647.2016.1119605

Ferguson, J. L., Makarem, S. C., & Jones, R. E. (2016). Using a class blog for student experiential learning reflection in business courses. Journal of Education for Business, (1). 1. doi:10.1080/08832323.2015.1108279.

International Socitey for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016