ClustrMaps as Student Motivation
Feb 13th, 2007 by Mr. Higgins
Yesterday at the eTech Ohio Conference, I listened to Will Richardson for his first three sessions (excellent by the way). I was privileged to learn from the following presentations on his weblogged wiki: “Weblogs in Schools”, “A Web of Connections…Why the Read Write Web Changes 
Everything”, and “Podcast, Vodcast, Screencast Nation.” Listening to his presentations allowed me to gain a great deal of information about blogging, wikis, pedagogy, and motivation. Then the major snow storm forced me to drive home during day two of the conference. I blog to learn from others who have the information and are willing to allow me to learn from them.
During one of his presentations he mentioned what motivates students during the process of blogging and my mind started to spin trying to answer that question for my students At the end of the presentation, the lightbulb literally went on and I figured it all out. It was the ClustrMap. The simple little map on the page makes some of my students even check my school website on the weekend. If I can get the students to understand the link between content and the ClustrMap, I will make a difference. I blog because I want students to be motivated by what I show them and vice versa.
My school website has a ClustrMap located on the bottom right of the screen. My students are constantly checking to see anyone new has come to my website and from where. Many times, they will even go on Google Earth or Flash Earth to check out the area around that little red dot. I see in their faces and hear in their voices how much it really means to them that they are part of the reason that people visit my school website. Some of them simply want to be noticed by a teacher, like myself; however, they could actually be recognized globally using that simple map. If you have a blog, you must put a ClustrMap on for your own motivation. I blog because I want to recognized globally and therefore feed that to my students.
The great part about this whole process is that I talked to Will after his first presentation and mentioned to him what my own personal answer was to student motivation through blogging. Then, he uses exactly what I said to later answer a question posed from the audience. THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT WITH BLOGGING…that something YOU say can conveyed to anyone around the world. Besides feeling great about having Will quote me, I really felt that my thoughts were collected about student motivation and my own personal ideas of blogging. I blog because I want to learn and want others to learn from my learning.
Technorati tags: weblogg-ed, Will Richardson, eTech07, ClustrMap
This blog is going to bat for Web 2.0. My name is Chris Higgins and I am a high school mathematics and computer science teacher at Norwalk High School in Ohio. I am a lifetime learner, Web 2.0 advocate, blogger, tennis coach, and a huge sports fan. Go Browns! Go Cavs! Go Tribe!
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Thanks for the fantastic comments, Higgy – we’re flattered to be used in such a great educational context. In fact, this definitely warrants a ‘User Of the Month’ plug from us (which thereby entitles you to an ad-free map and also much better zoomed-in maps for each of the continents)… only question is whether to apply this to your personal blog or the school… well, on the grounds of “map-as-motivator”, it has to be the school site, because then the school kids will be able to zoom in more closely and see in better detail who is visiting the site, and I’m sure they will love it!
All the best, and thanks again for the great comments.
-CJ on behalf of the ClustrMaps Team
Thank you very much for the kind words and for making me a ‘User Of The Month’. I see that you have already applied the account upgrade to my school website, which I exactly where I would have wanted to see it, because the students inspired me to blog about this tremendous Web 2.0 tool. For those that don’t know what Web 2.0 is or don’t understand the textbook definition, just take one look at a ClustrMap. It shows where people are communicating with your website/blog. The secret is motivation. People write better content when it means more red dots, lol. What a concept? Once again, thank you very much and I hope to make use of the free account upgrade in the future.
BTW, is there a badge on the ClustrMap website I can post on my blog?
Moscow public school just want to congratulate our friends with account upgrade. We are using ClustrMaps for more than 8 mounths and very satisfied with it. It’s interesting, useful and attract attention of our pupils, their parents and teachers. Hope you’ll upgrade our account too.
G’day Higgy
I would like to congratulate you with the “User of the Month” with ClustrMaps.
I have to smile when reading the “Mr. Higgins’ School Website” as it does bring many memories back to me from many moons ago as a student myself…chuckle.
How I wish I did listen more carefully to my own teacher but guess I turned out alright in the end. As an adult I am more respectful of what my peers can teach me and do have a niggling feeling I could have done much better as a young student
I do wish you well with your blog/s as I am sure your students will benefit from them greatly.
Cheers, Susan
Thank you for the kind words…it even makes me a chuckle a bit in all honestly when reading the header on my website.
Feb 13th, 2007 today is Oct 1st, 2oo8
wow… I am so impressed… I was looking for map like this one… Motivation- big word… and all of us need it…
live-learn-teach
i really like it.