THEN: Journal

Issue 6 is the latest complete issue. For previous issues, see the archives.

Issue No. 6: Summer, 2009

Feature Articles

Classroom blogging in the service of student-centered pedagogy: Two high school teachers’ use of blogs (September 23, 2008)
April Luehmann (University of Rochester)
Robyn MacBride (Greece Arcadia High School)

Classroom blogs (chronologically-organized series of web-based entries orchestrated by a teacher for his/her classroom) provide a unique vehicle to elicit and hear student voices, yet we know little about how teachers and students actually use this new tool. In this study, two classroom blogs were systematically examined to identify specific ways in which the teacher used it to support, strengthen and transform classroom instruction, and the learning affordances associated with each of these uses. The two classroom blogs examined were set up and maintained by 1) a first-year high school science teacher and 2) a veteran high school mathematics teacher, who chose to use their classroom blog in quite different ways. Six distinct "classroom blogging practices" are identified: (a) sharing resources; (b) responding to teacher prompts; (c) recording lessons' highlights; (c) posting learning challenges; (e) reflecting on what was learned; and (f) engaging in on-line conversations. Based on a content analysis of the two classroom blogs and interviews with the two teachers, considerations are offered about how each of these six complementary uses can offer different sets of learning opportunities for students, and furthermore how realizing these learning opportunities depends on how the blog is structured. These findings suggest that the manner and extent to which blogs can contribute to more engaged and in-depth student participation depends greatly on how a classroom blog is structured and used.

Laptops and PowerPoint: Teacher education for the senses or sensibilities? (April 09, 2009)
Jason M.C. Price (University of Victoria)
Carlo Ricci (Nipissing University)

In this article the authors explore the findings of their qualitative case study of a laptop focused teacher education program from a critical perspective. While examining student criticisms and concerns regarding their use of the technology in their classrooms and official curriculum as expressed in surveys, individual and focus group interviews, the authors argue for the benefits of unrestricted use of laptops with internet access in classrooms in aid of open source learning and substantive resistance to official curriculum.

The brain injured student and emotional curriculum (June 05, 2009)
Roy J. Thurston (University of Saskatchewan)

For all children, the learning process has highs and lows, but for individuals who have suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the return to the classroom can mean that even subjects that were once easily understood and quickly learned can be difficult to comprehend and retain. New information has surfaced on how memory can be improved by using curriculum enhanced with the link between visual imagery (film) and emotion, to help these students rebuild their educational strategies and their lives. This article discusses perspectives at the intersection of memory, learning, artistic media, and emotion, and relates a narrative of a successful use of film to engage students with TBIs.

Reviews

Book review: Here comes everybody, (January 22, 2009)
Kim Walter (CU-Denver and Jefferson County School District)

Issue in progress:

Issue No. 7 (open for submissions)

Reviews

Book review: Teaching the New Writing: Technology, change, and assessment in the 21st-century classroom, (June 15, 2009)
Jenna McWilliams (Indiana University)