For some students, publishing work online raises the stakes a little bit. Because it will be viewable by more people than just their teacher, many students put forth the extra effort to make things look good, care a little more about their grammar, and spend a little more time on the presentation.
No tool or strategy, regardless of whether it is high tech or an engaging activity, is ever the right place to start planning a lesson.
…as students began working, we noticed that all they had to do is google the exact question and the search returned the work of students who had done the webquest before and had published their answers online. Were they cheating? I’m not so sure. After all, we were asking them to search for answers online–and that’s exactly what they did. Were they cheating themselves in the long run? That’s more likely. But not because they were finding answers…
Over the next couple weeks, students will begin creating pages on Mahara, Dearborn’s ePortfolio system. These MLP pages will include their NWEA scores, their academic goals for all of the core areas and extended core, and their personal goals. And each team of teachers is currently thinking of ways to help students showcase even more of who they are using these pages.
Simply putting technology in the hands of our students is not magically going to increase achievement. Neither is having them go through the motions of all the other strategies we try to employ. Just being “engaged” doesn’t mean a student is being enriched.
![Go [Digital] Eagles!](https://techcoaches.dearbornschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2017/05/IMG_0016-400x250.jpg)
This year, I've been working with an amazing team of sixth grade ELA teachers at Bryant Middle School to make the transition to implementing My Learning Plan on a digital platform using Mahara. Previously, the team was introduced to Mahara and some of the...