I have blogged for the last couple of years, but I haven’t had nearly as much experience with wikis. I have had a couple of instructors and peers utilize wikis during my college career. I remember my first English professor used one, and I had not a clue what he was talking about. After checking out his site and those of other instructors, I began to get an idea of what a wiki was, but I sure didn’t know how to use or create one. The lecture notes and videos to watch this week were really helpful in clarifying wikis for me. Watching the video, Wiki in Plain English, the concept of a wiki was suddenly clear to me. I think a wiki can be an awesome classroom tool for projects and communication. Students and teacher could easily collaborate on projects, especially in an English classroom like I will be working in. A wiki would be an easy way to divide up group assignments, giving each individual a job to contribute. Discussions could also be held via wiki. One thing I think would be fun to do via wiki is relay writing. Each student submits the beginning of an essay or story and then adds a subsequent paragraph to another student’s. The process continues until we have several finished, collaborative papers. The textbook discusses a wiki project on the Holocaust. I think this is a great example of wiki use in the classroom. Students were very involved and got hands on learning opportunities. I look forward to being able to incorporate a similar project in my language arts classroom in the future.
When I read the term “social bookmarking,” I immediately thought of social media like Facebook and Twitter; however, after watching Lee Lefever’s video, Social Bookmarking in Plain English, I found that I had actually used social bookmarking tools before. I have used such tools as Evernote, vi.sualize.us, and StumbleUpon for my personal and school activities, but I had not used the ones in the list provided. I also follow a blog for teachers that provides links to new information and tools online. I think this could be a great tool for teachers and students, alike. As Lefever pointed out, websites one teacher finds may prove useful to other teachers as well. Through social bookmarking sites, they can share their favorite websites with other teachers and save them for themselves. I believe this would be a great resource for students, too. If a teacher finds a website that is helpful for a class or unit, he or she can share it with their students. I am sure social bookmarking could be very useful in my classroom. I think it would help better build a community of learners and play into students’ strengths when it comes to technology. I also like the idea of VoiceThread. I like all of the different choices for commenting. This is a great idea for students who aren’t necessarily just visual learners and need a voice to help them work through a problem or idea. I would definitely be interested in trying this out.
I enjoyed reading about Tapped In. It looks like another great way to create a learning community. Teachers lack opportunities to communicate with their peers. A quick chat in the hallway or teacher’s lounge is not enough, and staff meetings to simply discuss ideas or classroom challenges aree few and far between. Like our textbook states, “Teacher isolation has long been an obstacle to the exchange of ideas and information in the teaching profession” (page 128). Tapped In creates a solution to this problem. Teachers sign on and share their ideas and information with a community of their peers.I would love to get the opportunity to explore the site more in depth. I appreciated the section for student communication as well. It seems that this tool could be very useful and interesting. I think it could provide an opportunity for growth professionally and culturally since teachers and students around the world can connect. It’s nice to know that there are others facing the same challenges and successes.
Jonassen, DJ, Howland, JH, Marra, RM, & Crismond, DC (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
Lefever, L. (Producer), (2007). Wikis in Plain English. Available from http://commoncraft.com
Lefever, L. (Producer), (2007). Social Bookmarking in Plain English. Available fromhttp://dailymotion.com
Unknown producer. (2007). VoiceThread Introduction. Available from http://voicethread.com
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