Reflections Journal 6

Student Centered Learning

After spending time reading through different theorists and getting a better idea of what constructivism is I am ready to apply it to my lessons. I feel I do already use a lot of student centered learning activities but many of them do not include technology. I have thought about how I can change my class while using the same curriculum. My students usually fill out journal after hands on cooking lab. They will usually have a few refection questions to answer. I think I am going to transform this into a class blog for the students to talk about the labs. I would like to use a program where each student could set up their own blog like the one we have in this class. Are there any suggestions for other blog sites teachers are using? I need something that I can have a lot of control over. Another idea I have is creating a recipe quest for my students. I want my students to be able to find good recipes to use in our class that apply the concepts we are learning in the chapter.
I know students really enjoy using the computer labs at school and are often more likely to be engaged in an assignment if we use computers. The only problem is we are only allowed to use the computer labs so many times a quarter. I am concerned about getting the students to comment on blogs as a homework assignment because some of my students do not have a computer or the internet. I think I may try the blog assignment as an extra credit opportunity to get it started.