First I wanted to write about some of the effective ways that I have seen that children can gain feedback for their work in a variety of different ways which some teachers and myself until today would have been unaware off.

Quad blogging:

Quad blogging is an online community that once you are signed up to links schools from around the word together onto one platform allowing them to share and communicate different ideas in a way that would not be possible without this sort of technology. Not only does the effect the way in which children gain feedback from other pupils it also allows children to write for a purpose and audience. This is something that classroom writing might not do. However, I find that this is more effective than normal blogging as there is a wider audience and the thrill of not knowing the people you are writing for. Students who are worried about their writing been criticized by peer would feel less pressure in this sense of writing. below is the founder of quad blogging explaining why he created the site and how important it is to students and states”blogging without an audience is like Beyonce without a ring”.

Mozilla Badges:

Mozilla badge is a new form of assessment and rewards that allow people not just students to take courses and earn ‘badges’ that they can store in their electronic backpack. These give children the rewards in a sense of behaviorist teaching if you give the correct answers, you are rewarded for these. While this is effective in that if gives children the motivation to learn, the software itself is complicated to use and is a less serious way of educating students. Therefore If a child is not ready to self-educate they will not use these tools. However, they are allowing children to build bridges into real world applications and skills. Children who use these badge are using real life applicable skills that are transferable and important to everyday life.

I encourage you to take the time to watch the embedded video above. It covers the importance of feedback on children’s learning from home and how to develop writing skills in an effective way. In reflection, I can see the importance of blogging and badges within both the home and school environment as it gives children the confidence they need in a range of areas. As well as this quad blogging would enhance this development and gain feedback in non-formal writing to a larger extent and is something I would consider using in the classroom and encourage a class to look more deeply into at home.