My Very Own Wiki

My Wiki

Week 3 Reflection

Week 3 Reflection

          Web 2.0 and Wikis are not in my everyday vocabulary.  After reading this week’s article and watching a few informational videos on both, I feel confident I could use each term correctly in a sentence.  The O’Reilly article was long and at times confusing but I think I was able to get the main idea of what Web 2.0 is, how we got there, and the principles of being “Web 2.0.”  I have heard the term Web 2.0 multiple times before but never really knew its meaning.  It is a hard concept to define but I believe it is a descriptive word about certain websites where users can participate and take ownership, services are easy to use, and information is at your fingertips.

          Setting up my own Wiki was fairly simple, the video introducing Wiki’s and showing tips on how to edit them helped immensely.  I enjoy watching videos like this rather than trying to read instructions its very Web 2.0; not only can I find helpful videos effortlessly but others can record and post them if they want.  I could possibly see setting up and using a Wiki for review for my students.  I might post vocabulary to be defined, questions to be answered, and students could even share notes or study tips.  My biggest concern, especially with middle schoolers, is giving them the freedom to add or delete information as they please.  I imagine high school students or college students would take it more seriously.  I could also see using a Wiki for a daily re-cap, posting the lesson for the day with main vocabulary, and links to websites that could further the students knowledge on the topic.  The students could then share or add additional information on the subject or ask questions.  This would be great for students who are absent.  I cannot say I am ready to start up a Wiki for my students tomorrow but I am happy to say I know how to do so when I’m ready!

Week 2 Reflection 2

Week 2 Reflection

          I feel I have the basics of technology usage down; I use technology daily at both school and home.  When we were assigned to make a Blog I assumed it would be pretty simple.  Many of my friends use blogs to keep family and friends up to date on their lives and I visit a Blog about one of my favorite TV shows frequently.  I found it was very easy to sign up and start the process but as usual I spent way too much time on picking out the fonts and backgrounds.  I could see myself using a blog in the future to keep my friends and family up north up to date or possibly for school as a tool for homework questions or general class questions/comments.  The RSS Reader on the other hand I knew little about.  After reading about them on Wikipedia and asking my husband I now understand they are a great time saver.  If you are visiting multiple sites a day to get your news, celebrity gossip, and crafty ideas you can save time by starting a RSS Reader.  Now I am able to easily see the recently added information for all my favorite sites in one place.  It took me a few minutes to get everyone’s Blogs on the Reader but I think I will continue using this tool after class to waste less time on the internet.

         

          The two articles I read this week had a lot to offer; many of the ideas presented just made sense.  The Cone of Experience for example is a great graphic organizer showing multiple learning experiences.  The Cone does not necessarily go in a certain order and one lesson may cover multiple sections of the Cone.  Let’s say a chapter is to be taught to middle schoolers, a teacher who assigns the reading as homework or lectures on the chapter is using experiences from the top of the Cone.  Many of these students will leave confused and not have a concrete basis to recall this information on.  If another teacher uses a hands on inquiry lab to address this chapter the students now have learned by doing; they have experienced the real thing and will have an easier time recalling this information again. 

          When categorizing tools or lessons into an area of the Cone, many things must be considered and overlapping is bound to happen.  Creating and maintaining a Blog for instance could be at the top of the cone simply following directions to set up the template but could also be at the bottom of the cone if you are designing, creating, or analyzing an idea or experience.  It truly depends on the Blogs main purpose.  An RSS Reader also will overlap into different areas of the Cone; depending on the sites followed you may be reading information, looking at pictures, watching a video, or taking a virtual tour through a museum.  Because you are mainly reading and gathering information on an RSS Reader I would think it lends itself more to the top of the Cone.  After reading this article it really made me think of the variety of learning styles I have in an individual class and how Dale’s Cone can be used to come up with ideas to teach them in a way that makes sense to them.

          “Computer imagination” is important when it comes to learning using technology.  Keeping a student engaged on the computer involves finding useful sites and new exciting technology.  I recently took a class that introduced me to a variety of new ways to have students’ present information.  If you have a shy student who does not feel comfortable getting up in front of the class have them use voki.com or instead of making another poster board have your class use glogster.com and create a virtual poster instead.  The students enjoy using new technology and viewing sites that make learning more effective and increase their understanding of a topic.  Using a blog as an education tool you could easily embed videos to capture your student’s attention.  We are preparing to start our chemistry unit so a few videos of explosive experiments would get them excited to learn.  An RSS Reader would be a great tool to have set up on a computer lab where students could choose a site out of already teacher selected sites to take a quiz, perform a surgery, save a population of animals, or watch a video clip.  The options are endless when it comes to interactive sites to help solidify a topic you are teaching in your class.  Doing this will only assist you in reaching more of your students helping them make learning a purposeful experience.

Week 1 - Reflection 1

          We had a teacher work day at my school today.  After reading the two articles last night I was discussing this class with a few co-workers and telling them I would be responsible for creating a webpage, blog, podcast, and something called wikis and RSS feeds.  Many of them claimed how happy they were to have gone through college before so much “technology” was invented/used and wished me luck with all that “mumbo jumbo.”  I personally enjoy learning about new websites or techno-gadgets that make my life easier or make learning more fun.

          When I think about integrating technology into the classroom, I imagine using my SMARTBoard to visit an interactive website, watching a video clip, going to the computer lab to do a WebQuest, doing research for a project in the lab, or updating my personal class website with homework.  After reading the Reigeluth and Joseph article I guess I was wrong.  They write that “educators must recognize that using technology to support what they are already doing is not a productive course of action when compared to using technology to transform their teaching to a paradigm that is attainment-based rather than time-based.”  Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for customizing a student’s learning rather than standardizing it but when I have 32 students in one room mixed with inclusion students and many labeled gifted and talented, all with a variety of learning styles it’s out of the question.  I hate to admit it but I teach the state standards and struggle reaching those higher level learners with enrichment opportunities.  I try to make my student’s learning relevant and have them take ownership in their learning as much as possible because I know the end result will be a positive one. 

My students are responsible for analyzing their test results and we use these results to see who may need extra time and help and for which standard.  My students are given choices when completing a project as to how they will show what they know through a paper, model, song, etc.  I also allow them to sometimes choose what their project will be on but customizing their learning on an individual basis would be extremely cumbersome.  The writers of both articles also discuss how difficult this transformation is and will be.  I think it would be very interesting if the writers of both articles could be put in a room with a group of teachers to discuss their beliefs.    

          When I started Neil Postman’s article I thought he was crazy.  I cannot believe he truly thinks that “schools are not now and in fact have never been largely about getting information to children.”  I agree that we do constantly teach children how to “behave” in groups throughout their schooling, which is an important social skill but I believe teachers are in this profession to instill the love of learning in their students.  I feel his main point is that we are bombarding everyone with information in a variety of ways and it’s what we are doing or not doing with the information that is the issue.  As I read I recalled the commercials for bing.com where it shows people on search overload, spitting out tons of useless information.  It is our job as educators to relay information to our students that is state directed and relevant to them using books, technology, and a variety of other resources.  As educators we need to make sure we are using technology appropriately to customize and enrich our students learning.  We are trying to prepare these young minds for the future and like it or not technology is going to be a big part of that future.