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Interactive (Digital) Notebook

This is now the 3rd year my students in Algebra and Geometry have made digital portfolios using blogger in my 1:1 laptop classroom. Posts range from simple summaries of in class PrBL tasks to elaborate projects. In geometry, students make constructions using geogebra and embed those on their blogs.

Over the summer, for about a month I had "have students in algebra make interactive notebooks?" on my to do list. I was inspired by Sarah Hagan Carter and the sense of ownership her students must get from creating their own mini textbook via Interactive Notebooks. Additionally, her students are making a convenient and interactive study resource. I ended up deleting the to do item and moving on as I didn't want to give up on digital portfolios and I thought that having both seemed like too much.

Yesterday in class I was thinking about how students can find a sample problem of an older concept when working on one of our interleaved problem sets? We don't use a textbook, rather I hand them a packet of scaffold notes and practice problems at the beginning of a unit. They could find an old packet, make sure it is the correct one and then dutifully leaf through it until they find the correct concept (though the idea that an 8th grader still has an organized binder of notes packets he completed October after spring break seems unlikely). Then I thought that they could look at my online videos or just google it, but both of those options seem too time intensive for my frequently impatient students.

The idea I am working on now is to have students use their blogs not just for creating and reflecting on occasion, but to also create daily, practical samples of major concepts.

  • Student takes an image of a sample problem that includes helpful hints - all in their own handwriting, perhaps using different colors to highlight key steps
  • The concept it named
  • Each unit is one blog post that includes multiple concepts images
  • Each post is tagged the same way so students can easily find examples
What should I call these? Is anyone else making Digital Interactive Notebooks?

Comments

  1. I have recently discussed this with a fellow Algebra 1 teacher. She has begun having students use a Google sites template. I'm interested in fleshing out the details of wheat we can/should have them do electronically. As of right now the benefits outweigh the cons in my mind.

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    Replies
    1. As a 1:1 laptop school, it makes sense to use a digital platform to create something... my students use blogger because it is so much easier than google sites, but I would be interested in seeing what students make either way.

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