You ever make a mistake that gets in the way of the learning that you want to have happening in your classroom?
Boy, I sure did. And it’s been bugging me for the last week and a half. Consider this post a confessional of my error, as well as a bit of free writing about how in the world I’m going to get out of the pedagogical hole that I’ve placed myself in. (Okay, it’s not a hole, but it’s a danged ol’ pothole, and that’s frustrating enough.)
See, after my first writing assignment in my 10th grade course, I found myself with several really good pieces of student writing. Really interesting essays, the kind that demand to be read.
I had originally planned for my students to publish these to our school Elgg. But at the last minute, in a moment where I could see that my students, pushed to the edges of their patience by new classroom computers that almost worked perfectly and a Moodle that took them a little while to learn to navigate, I made a decision that I thought was going to save time and create a neat way for my students to publish from right inside the Moodle.
Instead of directing students to the Elgg, with an entirely new login and password and profile creation process (hurry up, OpenAcademic gang!), I sent them to the blogging feature of Moodle, hoping they could taste the sweet success of instant publishing. I covered all the safety basics, making sure identities were appropriately protected, and it was easy to push their writing into a public place.
Kind of. See, while anyone can come along and read what my students wrote, and chose to publish, no one can comment on their work, because Moodle blogs don’t allow for that. I’m sure I could (or someone already has) create a way to do commenting, but I need a simple solution. Yesterday. Comments are an essential piece of the feedback and publishing model that I see in my classroom. I forgot that for about five minutes when I called an audible in the heat of a classroom moment. Does that ever happen to you?
The frustrating piece here is that when I created the Elgg, I created a simple solution.
I just didn’t use the simple solution, because I was afraid that one more setup process would kill the writing community that I’d created. Turns out the teacher can do a good job of that, too. Just needed to vent. I’ve discussed the issue briefly with my students. They’re a little burned when it comes to publishing online right now, and I don’t blame them. My bad. Big bad, too, if I’ve turned them off to one of the best motivators for their future success as thinkers and writers.
The question is — what do we do now? (My hunch is that we move forward anyway, especially when their next assignment comes due at the end of this week, trying to ease hurt feelings as I go. It’s just so frustrating to slam smack into this wall when I saw it coming and had a plan.) Any suggestions?
