An end to the Investigation!... or is it?

At this stage, we're in the process of putting the final wraps on the investigate phase and preparing to look forward toward the next phases of Design and Plan.  We would like to take a moment to reflect back on where we started and what we know now that will help propel us forward.

We began with a our unit questions that presents the problem were trying to solve: 

How can we use our blogs to share our ideas online (in a responsible and safe manner) in order to have a positive effect on our community and ourselves?

We learned about Martha Payne, who's blog Never Seconds has done just this...  she has created a place online where she shares her ideas and perspective (in a responsible and safe manner) that is having a profound effect on her, on her immediate community (the meals have gotten much better) and on our global community.  The students around the world that make up Martha's audience, are now  paying much better attention to what they eat, they're becoming a more knowledgeable community through participation in her blog and they're raising thousands of pounds to help feed impoverished children in Malawea.

Sharing ideas online: check
Responsible and Safe behavior: check
Impact on herself: check
Impact on her community and the world: double check

Our final task for the investigation phase was to reflect on the unit questions and select the criteria we felt were most important in creating a successful blog.   Finally, students were asked to use their blog as a space to publish their fist post in the form of this reflection.

Here are a few student samples of reflections that truly captured the essence of why we're blogging and what they can do to make their blog successful.

Blogging 101 by Hayley D.

Internet Fame: Here I Come! by Benen W.

Where Will We Go? by Chance B.

Talented Tiana's Blog by Tiana T.

Well That Was Awkward! by Mikaila W.


 

And So It Begins!

Everyone ready to get started with their first blog post?!?!

This is the final task of the investigation phase of this portion of the project.  On your blog, you'll be completing a reflection using the three tasks you've participated in leading up to this.

In your first blog post, you'll be typing out your reflection answers to the following group of questions that will clue us in to what you have learned so far during this project and how you intend to use your blog to answer our unit question.

• How can we use our blogs to share our ideas online (in a responsible and safe manner) in order to have a positive effect on our community and ourselves?
• How will you use what you have learned to make an excellent blog that is personalized to you and represents you and your learning at Le Jardin Academy?
• Which 5 of the class criteria (from section 1, section 2 or section 3) are most important to you? Why? 
• How do you plan on making sure that your blog meets these 5 criteria and how do you plan on testing your blog to gauge your success?

Identify Criteria	Why is this criteria important?	How will the criteria be tested?
Example:  Relevant Content	- content should be related to the overall purpose of the blog so readers can relate to the topic and able to easily engage through comments/feedback.	- review statistics on comparing number of hits vs. number of comments - create a survey that will be linked from blog OR add a "like" function to the blog post
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc.

To earn a 5 – 6, make sure:

• You have included a complex and detailed reflection.
• You have included many excellent details and specifics relating to your project.

Remember:

• Your reflection should include at least 4-5 paragraphs.
• Your reflection should be published on your blog.
• You reflection should include only answers, not the questions.
• Each paragraph should be written so the reader can understand the question (without including the question).
• You are writing for an audience that may not be in our class, make sure to describe things so that anyone could understand.

In class we'll discuss some of the formatting choices you'll need to make to complete this assignment including linking to the documents you've been working on, correctly labeling the post and...

An Introduction to Blogger...Narrated!

Congratulations of starting your brand new blog!  In no time we'll be posting amazing content, sharing our ideas and connecting with others from around the globe.  To get us started, we'll need some basic working knowledge of the Blogger platform.  To help you along, we've created a set of Worksheets that should clue you into the features and options that Blogger has to offer.  We've even created a set of video tutorials to better help you find the main areas of your blog that you can modify and customize to better reach your intended audience.

The Secret is Out!

Looking to make your blog successful?

Our 8th graders have worked together to investigate and research what the are some of the elements, characteristics and features of quality blogs.  We already knew that engaging writing and interesting topics are what readers come back to a blog for... but there's something about how blogs function and the way users interact with them that helps make for a more successful reading experience.

It looks like all three of our sections found some similarities between the successful blogs they reviewed.  What did they find?  See for yourself in the links posted below!

8th Grade Section 1 (Connors)
8th Grade Section 2 (Okumura)
8th Grade Section 3 (Okumura)

Welcome Back Big Fish!

Welcome back to school 8th graders!  Mrs. Okumura and I are truly excited to be able work with such a talented and hard working group of designers!

This will be our class blog for Design Tech.  It's the place you'll go to find out what's going on in class, where to go to get help and what's expected of you.  It will be our way of communicating to all of you and your parents about our units of work (assignments and deadlines), upcoming events (activities) and much more.

I know that were going to learn a lot this year - all while having a great time!  If you have any questions or comments, please let us know! See you all soon!