A Difference: Distributed Teaching and Learning - The Diigo Meta page

• 26 Sep 16
  

  dekiru

  Blog article on using blogs in education by Terry Freedman.

  blog scribe web2.0

• 05 Feb 14
  

  Mary Mitchell

  math scribe blogging math_technology

• 08 Apr 13
  

  Tracey Kracht

  Interesting post about student 'scribes"

  blogging note-taking

  • The Scribe
  • except for test days, a different student is responsible for the daily scribe post.
  • Over the length of the course these scribe posts grow into the textbook for the course, collectively authored by the students; one student at a time, one day at a time.
  • every student will be scribe a minimum of three times;
  • simply to post a brief summary of what happened in class each day.
  • One of the ideas behind the scribe post is to make students responsible for their own learning.
  • When scribes reach this level of excellence they are inducted into The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame

  5 more annotations...

• 12 Feb 13
  

  Barbara Lindsey

  scribe students empower kuroptawa blog

• 03 Jan 13
  

  Outlines the use of scribes in the classroom and the power of doing scribes.

  blog articles best_practices

• 30 Nov 12
  

  Joan Sullivan

  scribe web2.0

  • Harnessing the Power of Pedagogy: The Scribe Post 
    
     This straightforward idea has incredibly powerful consequences. 
    
     Each day, except for test days, a different student is responsible for the daily scribe post. This is worth 5%-10% of their class mark (see below), everyone who writes a scribe post gets their marks -- non-blogging students don't (it's their choice). They end their post by choosing the next scribe. Over the length of the course these scribe posts grow into the textbook for the course, collectively authored by the students; one student at a time, one day at a time.
• 10 Sep 12
  

  Benjamin Light

  blogging blog teaching math web2.0 education scribe

• 19 Aug 12
  

  CANDELARIA WRIGHT

  instructions step by SCRIBE PODCAST

• 24 Mar 12
  

  Paige Lahaise

  Using a classroom scribe for your class site.

  scribe student blogging advice

  • All my classes are hybrid classes. They have both a face-to-face component and an online component. Each class is supported by a blog. The class blog is used in a number of different ways but in this article I will focus on two ideas, Scribe Posts and Feed Windows, pedagogy and audience; the first leads into the second. 

     Harnessing the Power of Pedagogy: The Scribe Post   This straightforward idea has incredibly powerful consequences. 

     Each day, except for test days, a different student is responsible for the daily scribe post. This is worth 5%-10% of their class mark (see below), everyone who writes a scribe post gets their marks -- non-blogging students don't (it's their choice). They end their post by choosing the next scribe. Over the length of the course these scribe posts grow into the textbook for the course, collectively authored by the students; one student at a time, one day at a time. 

     The first scribe is a volunteer. The teacher's daily involvement is limited to updating a post called The Scribe List which is at the top of the links list in the sidebar of each class blog (sample class blog). The Scribe List is an easy way for scribes to see who has already scribed and who they can choose next. Once the whole class has been scribe once we cycle through the class again. I teach in a semester system (full courses are taught in 4-5 month blocks). In my classes, every student will be scribe a minimum of three times; some will write four scribe posts. In this way, the responsibility for teaching and learning is distributed both across the class and the semester. 

     The assignment is simply to post a brief summary of what happened in class each day. The instructions given to students look something like this: 

  • Write a brief summary of what we learned in class today. Include enough detail so that someone who was away sick, or missed class for any other reason, can catch up on what they missed. Over the course of the semester, the scribe posts will grow into the textbook for the course; written by students for students. Remember that as each of you write your scribe posts. Ask yourself: "Is this good enough for our textbook? Would a graphic or other example(s) help illustrate what we learned?" And remember, you have a global audience, impress them. 

     

     The mechanics for teachers, aside from updating The Scribe List, also requires the occasional reminder to students to stay on top of their scribe posts. Occasionally, if the day's scribe is sick or away for any other reason give the class a few minutes, perhaps while taking attendance, to decide among themselves how they are going to deal with this issue. (One of the ideas behind the scribe post is to make students responsible for their own learning.) This essentially requires that a student volunteer to "cover" for the scribe who should pick up the routine again the next day. 

  • This simple idea has lead to some incredible student work. Early scribe posts tend to be entirely text based (example). As the class progresses, successive scribes begin to try to outdo each other and their scribe posts begin to incorporate text, images and colour used in meaningful ways (example). 

     When scribes reach this level of excellence they are inducted into The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame. The students first name only (to protect their identity), grade, subject, link to their post, post date, inductor and reason for induction are all recorded on a wiki. This is a further motivator for outstanding student work as different classes compete to be the Consecutive Hall Of Fame Scribe Post Record Holder. 

     Anyone can induct a scribe post into The Hall Of Fame. As a matter of fact, it's more powerfully motivating and has a greater impact when the inductor is not the student's own teacher. You can find a list of class blogs that use scribes in The Hall Of Fame. Feel free to add yourself and your classes to the list. (The password for the wiki is: iscribe) You'll notice that all the 2005-2006 School Year participants are math classes. That's because I began this project and I teach math. Nonetheless the pedagogy is easily transferable to other domains. Anne Smith, an English teacher in Colorado, has started using scribes in her English World Literature class. Alison Elkins, a grade 5 teacher in Winnipeg, has also had some success using scribes in her class (Alison's blog has moved, the new blog is here). This year, 2006-2007, we also have a badge that teachers can put (copy and paste) on posts that get inducted into the Hall Of Fame. Some of the benefits brought on by the Scribe Post Hall Of Fame are: 
  • • »Recognition of outstanding student work.
     
    • »Additional motivation for students to produce their best work.
     
    • »Encouragement for other students to excel.
     
    • »Build students self-esteem by using this forum to generate widespread public recognition.
     
     

     Of course the question arises, what does it take to get inducted into the Hall Of Fame? In a post to my class blogs called "Create a Scriber's Guide to Scribing", I asked two of my classes these questions: 

     

     
    • »How do you go about writing a scribe post? Do you do anything differently in class when it is your turn to scribe? If so, can you describe what you do differently in class when you are scribe?
     
    • »What makes a scribe post worthy of entry into The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame? Specifically, what should be included in the post for it to achieve this recognition?
     
    • »Compare the first scribe post you wrote to the most recent one. What, if anything, did you do differently?
     
     

     I'm going to patch together three different students answers but all their answers are worth reading. They answered here and here. 

     

     Manny: "When I write my scribe posts, I try to make it as so my classmates go, "ohh!" and "yeah that's it right on." That is my first priority because I want everyone in the class to do well, "we're all in it together" (at least that's how I feel anyway). During class, if it's my turn to scribe, I feel pressure that if I don't do well in helping my peers I'll let everyone down. So in class, I open both my eyes and ears wider than normal, and my pencil taking notes on just about everything related to the topic."

  • Corrie: "I think to be able to make a scribe post worthy to be in The Scribe Hall Of Fame, is the content. I think that's no. 1. But you also have to look at it differently. You have to be creative with your scribe. I think you should try to be different, do something that no one has done before. You should try to stick out from the group. To be recognized content and creativity is most important ... well that's what I think." 

     Teddie: "When comparing my first scribe and my very recent scribe I can see the quality of the scribes improve greatly mostly because of the competitiveness of the other scribers to make the hall of fame." 

     

     If you've already looked at the examples I've linked to you'll see the quality of work this pedagogy fosters in students. If not, you may be asking "Why should I do this?" 

     Having a daily scribe has improved both the student's learning and my teaching -- since I insist that they summarize their learning each day I had certainly better provide the content for them to work with. On my professional blog, A Difference I wrote about the impact of having daily scribes on my students and my teaching. I encourage you to read it. In the meantime consider this: Medical school is often considered one of the most academically demanding educational experiences a student can have, and so it should be. The paradigm in medical school that leads to deep learning is "watch it, do it, teach it." Scribe posts will bring that paradigm into your classroom, regardless of what you teach or how old your students are. As a teacher you know that there is nothing like having to teach something that leads to learning it well. Scribe posts make your students teachers ... with a global audience. 

  3 more annotations...

• 03 Aug 11
  

  Amy Cantone

  scribe blogging

• 14 Jun 11
  

  Michael Redmond

  scribe course ideas

• 10 Jun 11
  

  Jared Matas

  Alan November's idea of using student scribes in each class. this is a link to an example
  

• 07 Jun 11
  

  Lesli Brown

  Using a scribe in class each day - blog about a Math teacher who does this.

  math education scribe blogging teaching

• 30 Apr 11
  

  Bret Willhoit

  blogging blog web2.0 scribe notes notetaking

• 27 Apr 11
  

  adamfachler

  student-centered voice community

• 05 Mar 11
  

  The Scribe Post - students take turns posting the daily notes, which then become an online textbook for the class and a global audience. Pretty cool ideas!

  education teaching blog web2.0 student_engagement digital Collaboration blogging howto

• 21 Jan 11
  

  Christine Draper

  scribe blogging teaching web2.0 education howto

• 18 Jan 11
  

  Mike Rothamel

  scribe blogging summarizing class

• 30 Nov 10
  

  Jim Peterson

  scribe post quote

• 26 Oct 10
  

  Carol Sukoneck

  resources writing blogging podcasting

• 25 Aug 10
  

  Dan Twisler

  math blogging

• 20 Feb 10
  

  sheri okland
• 27 Jan 10
  

  Heidi VanWyk

  blogging scribe teaching math

• 30 Oct 09
  

  Jeremy Duncan

  blgging math blog education web 2.0 delicious

• 20 Oct 09
  

  Brian Metcalfe
  • Harnessing the Power of Pedagogy: The Scribe Post
• 

  David Raymond

  darrenkuropatwa activities ideas teaching scribe

• 19 Oct 09
  

  Semicolon1 Schiff

  blogging web 2.0

• 23 Sep 09
  

  Jason Buell

  scribe posts Tags

• 22 Jul 09
  

  Michael Mitchell

  web2.0

• 02 Jul 09
  

  Paige Lahaise

  Using a classroom scribe for your class site.

  scribe student blogging advice

  • All my classes are hybrid classes. They have both a face-to-face component and an online component. Each class is supported by a blog. The class blog is used in a number of different ways but in this article I will focus on two ideas, Scribe Posts and Feed Windows, pedagogy and audience; the first leads into the second. 

     Harnessing the Power of Pedagogy: The Scribe Post   This straightforward idea has incredibly powerful consequences. 

     Each day, except for test days, a different student is responsible for the daily scribe post. This is worth 5%-10% of their class mark (see below), everyone who writes a scribe post gets their marks -- non-blogging students don't (it's their choice). They end their post by choosing the next scribe. Over the length of the course these scribe posts grow into the textbook for the course, collectively authored by the students; one student at a time, one day at a time. 

     The first scribe is a volunteer. The teacher's daily involvement is limited to updating a post called The Scribe List which is at the top of the links list in the sidebar of each class blog (sample class blog). The Scribe List is an easy way for scribes to see who has already scribed and who they can choose next. Once the whole class has been scribe once we cycle through the class again. I teach in a semester system (full courses are taught in 4-5 month blocks). In my classes, every student will be scribe a minimum of three times; some will write four scribe posts. In this way, the responsibility for teaching and learning is distributed both across the class and the semester. 

     The assignment is simply to post a brief summary of what happened in class each day. The instructions given to students look something like this: 

  • Write a brief summary of what we learned in class today. Include enough detail so that someone who was away sick, or missed class for any other reason, can catch up on what they missed. Over the course of the semester, the scribe posts will grow into the textbook for the course; written by students for students. Remember that as each of you write your scribe posts. Ask yourself: "Is this good enough for our textbook? Would a graphic or other example(s) help illustrate what we learned?" And remember, you have a global audience, impress them. 

     

     The mechanics for teachers, aside from updating The Scribe List, also requires the occasional reminder to students to stay on top of their scribe posts. Occasionally, if the day's scribe is sick or away for any other reason give the class a few minutes, perhaps while taking attendance, to decide among themselves how they are going to deal with this issue. (One of the ideas behind the scribe post is to make students responsible for their own learning.) This essentially requires that a student volunteer to "cover" for the scribe who should pick up the routine again the next day. 

  • This simple idea has lead to some incredible student work. Early scribe posts tend to be entirely text based (example). As the class progresses, successive scribes begin to try to outdo each other and their scribe posts begin to incorporate text, images and colour used in meaningful ways (example). 

     When scribes reach this level of excellence they are inducted into The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame. The students first name only (to protect their identity), grade, subject, link to their post, post date, inductor and reason for induction are all recorded on a wiki. This is a further motivator for outstanding student work as different classes compete to be the Consecutive Hall Of Fame Scribe Post Record Holder. 

     Anyone can induct a scribe post into The Hall Of Fame. As a matter of fact, it's more powerfully motivating and has a greater impact when the inductor is not the student's own teacher. You can find a list of class blogs that use scribes in The Hall Of Fame. Feel free to add yourself and your classes to the list. (The password for the wiki is: iscribe) You'll notice that all the 2005-2006 School Year participants are math classes. That's because I began this project and I teach math. Nonetheless the pedagogy is easily transferable to other domains. Anne Smith, an English teacher in Colorado, has started using scribes in her English World Literature class. Alison Elkins, a grade 5 teacher in Winnipeg, has also had some success using scribes in her class (Alison's blog has moved, the new blog is here). This year, 2006-2007, we also have a badge that teachers can put (copy and paste) on posts that get inducted into the Hall Of Fame. Some of the benefits brought on by the Scribe Post Hall Of Fame are: 
  • • »Recognition of outstanding student work.
     
    • »Additional motivation for students to produce their best work.
     
    • »Encouragement for other students to excel.
     
    • »Build students self-esteem by using this forum to generate widespread public recognition.
     
     

     Of course the question arises, what does it take to get inducted into the Hall Of Fame? In a post to my class blogs called "Create a Scriber's Guide to Scribing", I asked two of my classes these questions: 

     

     
    • »How do you go about writing a scribe post? Do you do anything differently in class when it is your turn to scribe? If so, can you describe what you do differently in class when you are scribe?
     
    • »What makes a scribe post worthy of entry into The Scribe Post Hall Of Fame? Specifically, what should be included in the post for it to achieve this recognition?
     
    • »Compare the first scribe post you wrote to the most recent one. What, if anything, did you do differently?
     
     

     I'm going to patch together three different students answers but all their answers are worth reading. They answered here and here. 

     

     Manny: "When I write my scribe posts, I try to make it as so my classmates go, "ohh!" and "yeah that's it right on." That is my first priority because I want everyone in the class to do well, "we're all in it together" (at least that's how I feel anyway). During class, if it's my turn to scribe, I feel pressure that if I don't do well in helping my peers I'll let everyone down. So in class, I open both my eyes and ears wider than normal, and my pencil taking notes on just about everything related to the topic."

  • Corrie: "I think to be able to make a scribe post worthy to be in The Scribe Hall Of Fame, is the content. I think that's no. 1. But you also have to look at it differently. You have to be creative with your scribe. I think you should try to be different, do something that no one has done before. You should try to stick out from the group. To be recognized content and creativity is most important ... well that's what I think." 

     Teddie: "When comparing my first scribe and my very recent scribe I can see the quality of the scribes improve greatly mostly because of the competitiveness of the other scribers to make the hall of fame." 

     

     If you've already looked at the examples I've linked to you'll see the quality of work this pedagogy fosters in students. If not, you may be asking "Why should I do this?" 

     Having a daily scribe has improved both the student's learning and my teaching -- since I insist that they summarize their learning each day I had certainly better provide the content for them to work with. On my professional blog, A Difference I wrote about the impact of having daily scribes on my students and my teaching. I encourage you to read it. In the meantime consider this: Medical school is often considered one of the most academically demanding educational experiences a student can have, and so it should be. The paradigm in medical school that leads to deep learning is "watch it, do it, teach it." Scribe posts will bring that paradigm into your classroom, regardless of what you teach or how old your students are. As a teacher you know that there is nothing like having to teach something that leads to learning it well. Scribe posts make your students teachers ... with a global audience. 

  3 more annotations...

• 06 Apr 09
  

  Sheila Trudgett

  web2.0

• 19 Mar 09
  

  Ben W

  Darren explains how he implements the scribe post in his math classroom.

  blogging education teaching scribe

• 

  Terri Johnson

  web2.0 blogging blog math teaching pedagogy scribepost scribe

• 11 Feb 09
  

  William O'Brien

  math ideas scribe blog

• 14 Nov 08
  

  terontech

  blog novembersuggestion

• 20 Oct 08
  

  gordon heidel

  blog

• 09 Oct 08
  

  Alexandra Konsur

  Stuff for hybrid classes

  lesson lessons resource Resources tool tools

• 24 Sep 08
  

  Laura Deisley

  Darren's summary of his scribe posting

  scribe math blogging

• 21 Sep 08
  

  William Gaskins

  wiki wkis Wiki Presentation

• 29 Aug 08
  

  Sue Summerford

  Darren Kuropatwa writes in his "A Difference" blogspot about how he initiates the Scribe Post for distributed teaching and learning of math where students become the scribe for the day

  math mathematics Kuropatwa scribe

• 04 Jul 08
  

  Debra B

  scribes

• 

  Wendy Drexler

  blogging scribe humangeography

• 

  William Ferriter

  An old @dkuropatwa post describing the use of scribe posts in his classroom as a way of engaging students in conversations about classroom content.

  scribe_posts kuropatwa nmsa

• 10 Jun 08
  

  lrdionson

  education blog reads

• 02 Jun 08
  

  chris kerlin

  Post explaining the how and why of having students take turns playing class scribe on a blog

  math DistributedCognition blog scribe writing

• 16 May 08
  

  Cherice Montgomery

  Post explaining the how and why of having students take turns playing class scribe on a blog

  math DistributedCognition blog scribe

• 09 Apr 08
  

  Jim Bledsoe

  blog scribe math

• 28 Mar 08
  

  Jack MacLeod

  Bloglines Good Reads

• 25 Mar 08
  

  Page Lennig

  blogs teaching web2.0

• 17 Mar 08
  

  Karl Fisch

  aboutblogs scribe_post

• 27 Dec 07
  

  blogging examples pedagogy scribe teaching

• 04 Dec 07
  

  Shelley Paul

  Darren Kuropatwa explains Scribe Posts

  plpconsortium blog wiki web2.0 best_practice math

• 10 Oct 07
  

  dilaycock

  blogs del.icio.us imported socialnetworking web2.0

• 13 Aug 07
  

  Richard van Dijk

  Using Blogs in Secondary classrooms

  blog blogging teaching learning

• 22 Jun 07
  

  Brian Gross

  education teaching blog scribe Web2.0 blogging learning

• 01 May 07
  

  Fred Logue

  education internet teaching web

• 03 Jan 07
  

  fschoubben

  marks just for writing a blog?!? If I wrote, "I really can't be
  bothered to blog about this, but I need the 5 marks", would that get me
  5 marks? No; that wouldn’t be a summary of what was learned in class.
  Also, it’s not 5 marks, it’s 5 percent of t
  marks just for writing a blog?!? If I wrote, "I really can't be bothered to blog about this, but I need the 5 marks", would that get me 5 marks? No; that wouldn’t be a summary of what was learned in class. Also, it’s not 5 marks, it’s 5 percent of t

  blog education howto en todo

• 08 Dec 06
  

  Alan Levine

  This straightforward idea has incredibly powerful consequences. Each day, except for test days, a different student is responsible for the daily scribe post.

  education howto teaching ideas blogging hznmc hz07 user_content

• 03 Dec 06
  

  Darrel Branson

  blogs scribe howto blog_post

• 22 Nov 06
  

  tb_unisg

  blogging howto

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