On the Trails

I could write a post about how my kids and I watched the space shuttle Endeavor launch yesterday on the web, but that would just be another blog post about it. I believe that writing is different in this day and age. I really believe teachers can create better learning experiences with a blog (or classroom web site). I also believe that we need to teach kids about this new way of writing.

If I had to give it a name, I would call this new way of writing – dynamic writing (writing that takes the reader to other places, places that may show an image, a video, a podcast). This new way of writing enables the writer to create experiences for the reader that enables the text to become interactive.

I have written two blog posts about the Endeavor mission in two styles:

1. the old way – without links
2. the new way – with links

If I were going to teach with these posts, my Student Objective could be:

• Identify main ideas and supporting details in informational texts

and the Student Product could be:

• Use the Read-Write-Think Notetaking Tool to organize the main idea and supporting details. Have the students copy/paste their notes into the message board section of my site

The space shuttle Endeavor took off last night on a mission that will take them to the International Space Station. The crew will continue the construction of the space station by delivering a third starboard truss segment. They will also bring some new supplies on board and take some 5000 pounds of “stuff” back with them.Aside from the assembly of some important parts of the space station, there is a teacher/astronaut on board (Barbara Morgan) who will be leading some education related activities. One of them is an engineering challenge. The challenge is to design, analyze and build/assess plant growth chambers. The other learning experience is about the human body and how fit it would need to be for space exploration.

New Way of Writing

The space shuttle Endeavor (view a video of the launch) took off last night on a mission that will take them to the International Space Station. The crew will continue the construction of the space station by delivering a third starboard truss segment. They will also bring some new supplies on board and take some 5000 pounds of “stuff” back with them (read about the full mission).Aside from the assembly of some important parts of the space station, there is a teacher/astronaut on board (Barbara Morgan) who will be leading some education related activities. One of them is an engineering challenge. The challenge is to design, analyze and build/assess plant growth chambers. The other learning experience is a fitness challenge involving the human body and how fit it would need to be for space exploration.

Notes:
The new way of writing includes pictures and links to more information. This type of writing takes a lot more time and little knowledge of html (needed to include the pictures)

The writing also enables those students who want more information to be able to explore on their own. The writer makes the connections for the reader (no unnecessary searching).

Here are the steps I followed in order to write the new way:

1. I used Scribefire, a firefox add-on to write this blog post. (I did so, because Scribefire opens on the bottom of the Firefox web browser and enables me to navigate to other web pages on the top of my web browser) THIS IS NOT NECESSARY, ONLY HELPFUL.
2. I used tabs (this makes life so much easier)
   1. I had the NASA Space Shuttle Mission open in one tab and I had another tab opened that I used as a scratch tab (similar to scratch paper – where one would jot down notes – this is a catch-all window, so that I can stay on the space shuttle page and use the scratch tab web page to find other things.
3. I wrote the old post first
4. I decided on what I wanted to link to
5. I created the links to the images and to the new learning

From start to finish, the post took me 20 minutes – and that was because I had to read the mission!

Here is to the great people at NASA – who continue to imagine. And here is to the crew of the Challenger (image of crew)- you were important to all of us!

Technorati Tags: nasa, space shuttle, writing with blogs, education

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