Evidence of Learning Lags

I was impressed with what my students turned out for their first blog posts.  (You can see them at the Walking With Giants blog.) They really seemed to rise to the occasion for their initial attempt publishing to the world.

At the start of the year, the students investigated digital citizenship and literacy.  Since they had the opportunity to experience an one-to-one environment in my class, I wanted them to be aware of how they should respect and use the computer as a tool.  Their blog post culminated their work, as they reflected on what they had learned.

The students had demonstrated what they had learned through other assessments, but the blog posts really allowed me to see their understanding in a different light.  Although some were still showing misunderstandings, writing for the blog gave an additional chance for students to clarify their understandings.  By incorporating the chance for feedback and revision prior to publishing, students were able to enhance both their understanding and their writing.  It was a valuable process for both students and teacher and one that I will replicate.

Somewhat disappointing, after their learning and reflection, has been the implementation of their knowledge.  Many students pointed out the need to respect copyright laws and acknowledged that have, and should not, simply copy and paste images and the such from the internet.  In practice, however, the students are still falling a bit short.  The inclination to copy and paste images from Google is hard for them to resist.  Even though they know they should take other steps, even though they are being given explicit directions so as to avoid it, they still go immediately search for an image on Google to copy and paste into their work.

Clearly students need more practice in using tools like Creative Commons to find images and other information they can use in their work for school.  They have not been instructed otherwise, until this year, and so, will need to break habits.  

Even though the evidence of their learning is lagging behind what they can state as what they have learned, I hope their practice will make perfect.