Time and student interest/commitment - 4/7/11

I learned two things today and I asked for student input for next week. I want to hear what the students think and what they want.

In my opinion, blogs are great for student sharing and publishing. What do students think?

I underestimated the time it would take for us to become acquainted with all of the challenges we would encounter. For example:
1. Time: time to find information, time in the lab, length of project time
2. group commitment: what happens when one member of the group is not giving or finding information? What to do when a group seems disconnected from the class; what happens when a group's fun over takes the work?
3. Editing - students are uploading information without checking it for errors. They don't seem to be working as a group to edit the written work.
4. Some students show independence and others wait for classroom time and instruction.
5. Blogs need pre-blog workshops and continuous managing.

But, that is not such a problem because we have a few weeks of school and we can take the time to make the blogs worthwhile.

Today, Thursday, I had to be away but I signed in at the class time. Only 12 students showed up for the class. The class is made up of 20 students.

Some blogs show commitment and college motivation. Other blogs show very little progress. I cannot jump to conclusions, but it raises the question about student interest and commitment.

It made me think that those students who see creative projects as "work" can choose to opt out. No project is interesting without the enthusiasm and motivation of the participants.