Creating Individual Student Journals within D2L

Many Park Hill teachers are interested in components within Desire2Learn that provide individualized and interactive learning experiences to engage and inspire students.  One option is to create individual student journals within D2L.  This tool transforms the traditional handwritten journal into an evolving collaboration between each individual student and the teacher by providing more opportunities for differentiation, creativity, inquiry, and reflection.

In addition, students have the ability to go beyond the traditional journal options due to the HTML editor functions.  Within D2L, students are not just substituting an electronic notebook for a handwritten/paper and pencil notebook. Instead, D2L provides enhancement through augmentation with functional improvement of a traditional journal, modification through task redesign, and redefinition since some tasks within the D2L journal were inconceivable in the traditional mode.

With a D2L journal, students are able to address Common Core State Standards and Common Core Anchor Standards by:

• Accessing Video Note and providing a verbal response, entry, reflection, or reply
• Including images, both self-created and computer generated, to enhance understanding and apply visualization strategies
• Revising and editing posts based on teacher reply comments in realtime
• Asking questions (inquiry) based on teacher reply comments in realtime
• Providing evidence or support for posts from reliable sources (links, supporting videos, etc.)
• Representing personal ideas in various forms by embedding tools
• Integrating information from several sources
• Progressing in pace and proficiency at individualized levels based on teacher's reply prompts (in both video form and written form)

In order to assist you in creating individual journals for each student within a D2L course, I have created a short video tutorial.  Click here for a print copy of the instructions.

If you are interested in using D2L journals to create a reader's workshop notebook for "Shared Text" and "Independent Text," click here.