K12

Mrs. Kennedy is a 7th and 8th grade French teacher at Phillips Middle School in Mobile, Alabama. She uses the blog in several ways. She uses it for students to post homework throughout the year. This creates a running journal that students can continue to review. Students have to learn how to cut and paste their work into the blog. She also makes the students respond to other students blogs. By responding to other student’s blogs, students reinforce their own work and understand the material better.
Mrs. Kennedy’s Blog

Janice Friesen, a teacher from Austin Texas used her blog to document her trip to Greece. This is turn was shared with her students. In her blog, she gives details about places she went to and pictures she had taken. Students learn about other countries in class, but they really get more out of it when someone can share an actual experience of being there. I am attaching a picture that Mrs. Freisen took while in Greece. It really is a beautiful place to visit, not to mention that my father was born there.
Learning in Greece blog

Mrs. Kennedy also uses technology in the classroom. She has a webpage that students can go to for everything related to the class. Not only that, parents can also view the website so they can see when projects are due, and test dates. The website contains a monthly calendar of events. There is also a letter to the parents. The site contains a syllabus and homework assignments. There are web links that students can go to for additional help. One of the sites contains the textbook that is used for the class. It also contains a blog location where students not only post their homework, but are also required to respond to other students work. This is a great way to use technology in the classroom.

Mrs. Kennedy home page

Ballard High School in Seattle, Washington, conducted a project with handheld devices. Students from one ninth-grade language arts class were used as the control group. The students used the devices for organizing personal information. Examples would include; assignment calendars, contacts, and to-do-lists. They can also access the course curriculum on the school Web site. Students were measured on personal organization, academic improvement, and technological fluency. The project also used “a quasi-control group,” which consisted of a similar class that did not use the devices.
The purpose was to see if such technology would improve students learning abilities. Unfortunately, the site did not give results, probably because it was currently being administered, but what you are seeing is the continued attempt to improve education.Ballard High School