Wiki Usage in Classroom

I have to say this has been the most fun exploring. I liked the Village Wiki and see possibilities for Northwood. As all the video clips expressed, Wiki is the "collaborative sharing of ideas!" It is a place that demonstrates respect for student work. Students enjoy creating and hand on activities but they don't like doing worksheets. I don't like correcting worksheets, but I think that putting information in Wiki form would be fun for students and teachers.

I am not into classroom newsletters but I was wondering whether a Wiki would be an appropriate way to express what is happening in the classroom, to invite parents to add comments or would that be too difficult to control?

Presently my 6th grade students are working in partnerships on creating scrapbooks relating to WWII. I could see them using Wiki to do this and I am thinking they would spend more time drawing on and including primary sources. Next year, my 5th graders will make an immigration scrapbook. I want to be able to use wikis to help my students engage more in authentic learning. Maybe we would even be able to collect comments from immigrants themselves.

I like Wikis. I wish I had time to create my own now. I may try over the summer.

After listening to the Speed of Creativity, and visiting Next Vista, Teacher Tube, Clip Blast and You Tube, I feel that I have been introduced to a whole new world! Our learners live in a digital, virtual, and global world. I come from a world that was protected and now seems quite small. When we talk about the need to help our students work with others, we usually think of the work environment. We try to prepare them for the future. I now have to ask myself "Can I really do that?" "What does that mean?" We are preparing students to live in a bigger world than the one I grew up in.

I like the concept behind NextVista. I had a difficult time downloading the movies but I was able to connect to a few and just seeing what Next Vista has available was interesting. I like the quality of this site. I appreciate the fact that all content is vetted unlike You Tube where "anything goes". I did not open many videos in You Tube. I did not understand the educational value as I did with Next Vista. I am so aware that this is an incredible opportunity to bridge the gap between cultures. We, as teachers, can tell students what we have read but how different for them to hear and see a video made by a person in another culture!

I could see students and teachers making videos to help learn about our culture, and even addressing the curriculm in any subject. Teacher Tube was okay but I had to do a lot of sorting of ideas to find somehting I think would be educationally sound for my kids. I could see again students making a movie for their peers about something we learned in school, even putting some of the interactive skits they do to emphasize historical content would be a new way for them to invest and share their knowledge with the world. Talk about authentic audience! I think older teens would connect with this site.

I did not like Clip Blast. I would not want my students to have access to this site. It would be too distracting. I did have fun though, seeing clips of movies. I thought about viewing some of the political ones but veered away from them. Isn't that what our students would do?

I am not sure if I will use these sites in my own classroom. I need to ponder this awhile and listen to others who do use them. Am I too old to leap with the speed of creativity into this new vista?

Reflection for Assignment 4

While I do not consider myself a conservative, when it came to classroom blogging, I heard myself exclaim, "Like that would be helpful to learners! Hrumph!" I have to say that I have changed and I do see the value of blogging. It is a faster way to give instant feedback to students about their reading and writing. I believe it would be beneficial to meet students in a realm that they are comfortable in instead of always asking them to leave their comfort zone.

I hope to use blogging to enrich and enliven the deadly reader responses the students are expected to do. I will set up a classroom blog for that purpose.

A chance to speak out

Andy Carvin is considered an internet activist, author, and Ed tech expert. He alerts us to the fact that we have a chance to speak to the U.S. Secretary of Education about the role of technology in the classroom. In the blog "Open Letters on the Role of Education Technology", there is a questionnaire for anyone to complete in order to give public feedback. I did not add a post yet but I made copies of the article and the one posted comment. I will read them and hope to add my comments. I thought it would be something that you tech people out there would like to respond to. The URL is www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now

Internet safety

I have visited the David Warlick site because Lori used it in her demo lesson and I was curious. There I met Mary Conyers who is a grandmother invested in helping children stay safe while surfing the net. She uses the analogy of preparing young drivers to get their licenses. Mrs. Conyers tells us not to assume that our children know how to be safe online. She cautions parents to provide information to their children that will help them visit only approved sites. I know that my sixth graders do not always make good choices.
Her advice actually reminded me of the classes that Lori did for our students.

You can get a free DVD if you visit wral.com.

It appears that David Warlick adds a new topic each day or so. You may have to scroll to find Mary Conyers but she is worth it.

Welcome to my blog

I am new to blogging and have created this blog as an assignment for an online course that I am currently taking. I hope to learn enough that I might set up a classroom blog to help students blog about books and current events, as a start.