Managing feedback, learning journals and maybe a bit of technology?

For years, I have asked my 11-16 year old students to do learning journals in Maths. They need a lot of guidance but many say they really value them, especially for revision purposes. It's also an easy homework task (though I wouldn't set only this).

As marking workload becomes more and more of an issue, I think it's important to think of ways that we can ensure students know where they are and how to improve without actually burning ourselves out by October half term!

In the last couple of years I've also made use of online forums on the school's Managed Learning Environment (MLE) and students find this also a handy reference guide to back topics. It is also an ideal opportunity for some cross-curricular links since I can remind them that any websites or books used must be stated to avoid plagiarism.

Anyway, I don't know anything about MOOCs apart from what I've read on the internet but I wonder if that could be a next step. Last year I made mini video films of worked examples that students could use to check their own work. They really liked that, and I've also used audacity software to make short audio podcasts of key ideas and concepts.

This year I've also set up a classroom 'help desk' .... ermm it's just a box with key facts, FAQs, etc. and post it notes that students can come up and use any time during the lesson. In the past, I've allowed the to come and write questions on the board for others to come up and answer, when they are working on individual problem solving activities.

Today I spotted this on Twitter and really liked it:
@pgcap #fdol131 PBL group 2: Supporting learners online, looking at feedback http://youtu.be/w7atP6Ujwlc  > excellent resource!

and a few weeks ago this

@Janetteww This is my blog post with my initial thoughts on maths journals and inspirations http://devoil.wordpress.com/ 

So, putting it all together and sitting by the pond I started to muse about a new way of working in class ....... (new for me I mean) .....

I think I am going to use the idea of keeping the learning journal in a separate notebook and encouraging students to paste in cuttings etc. I'll continue to work on the online forums and have some 'rules' about who can answer whom and how long I'll leave it before I chip in. I've noticed that, more and more, some students are reluctant to do their own checking of work so maybe we will do more on mini whiteboards and less paper based work - keeping that perhaps for individual problem solving and exam style questions. And I'll be thinking about MOOCs.

Any thoughts gratefully received.