seven quick reasons why Tumblr may be perfect for the writing / blogging / posting / literacy piece in your room:
Students can post by email.
There’s an “ask” system.
It’s social-by-design.
Hashtags, sharing, reblogging, tweeting–it operates both as social media and a blogging system.
It’s flexible.
It can be visual or textual; video or gifs; audio or links; conversational or one-sided.
It’s already on their phones.
Well, most of them. Though they may delete it when they found out that you know.
It’s dead simple to use.
Reblogging is an interesting way to share thinking–and simple too. Maybe too simple to be considered cognitive heavy lifting, but that’s all in how you use it. Liking posts, using hashtags, posting new blogs–all simple to do from a tablet, phone, laptop, or desktop.
It’s platform-agnostic.
It works (almost) equally well across operating systems, much like Evernote. In fact, it can be thought of as the Evernote of blogging platforms.
We use iPads for games and other online learning apps on a regular basis. Students have tracked their progress on apps only as far as getting so far = stickers/rewards. Goal setting wasn't involved, nor were specific goals related to skills students needed to learn. This could be a simple addition to our stations to make classroom learning with iPad apps more effective.
Hi Diane: I am wondering, does your school support iPads for students in your class? or, is it required that they purchase their own. Is this an online class or a face-face class?
