Week 7, Thing 16

I have to admit I had no idea what a wiki was before reading this thing. In fact, I had scrolled ahead through the things months ago and wanted to cheat and look ahead but was afraid without the previous weeks' instruction I would be lost. Then tonight I finally got to this thing, and there it was-- wiki, as in wikipedia, the website I've been trained to tell my students to avoid at all costs due to the potential for inaccuracy of added information.

After reviewing the varios wiki samples, I must say that I can see very positive uses for wikis in my teaching (although I still would steer clear of wikipedia). I like the idea of setting up a wiki for my class for a project such as their next current events assignment. They could find information about countries in SE Asia and post the facts they find along with the website they found it at. Then, after the class had posted (maybe give them a two week deadline to do so), they could write an essay about what they learned about SE Asia using the class' facts. This idea came to mind really quickly, and I bet as I continue to think of applications, more and better ones will arise.

I would love to find a wiki for the class I teach, one in which fellow seventh grade history teachers share knowledge about the different topics we teach. For example, the students often ask lots of questions about the Taj Mahal when I teach the Mughal Empire. It wuld be great to have a wiki of facts that other teachers have found interesting, educational, and documented.

I like the idea of wikis, and I think this thing has many applications to teaching!

Week 6, Thing 15

The perspectives on Library 2.o were interesting. As an instructor in a small private school, I realize that my school's library is very different from larger schools', universities' and public libraries. Yet, we are still faced with some of the same questions, such as meeting the needs of students in an ever-increasing digital age. I think it will become the librarian's role at least to some degree to ensure that the students know how to use the new technology and how to have that technology enhance the use of the library's print resources. I also believe it can be a role shared by the librarian and the classroom teacher. Teaching seventh graders recently how to use search engines to find current event articles on Africa reminded me of teaching seventh graders YEARS ago how to find articles on topics in our classroom set of encyclopedias. I do think that classroom teachers who assign research have to be willing to do at least part of the job of showing students how to use the research tools available, whether print, digital, or both. It's for this reason, among others, that I am glad I am taking this course. My job, like any other educators, has to evolve with the trends in technology and learning.

Week 6, Thing 14

Several weeks have gone by since I've been able to work on the "things," so I was really looking forward to working on a new "thing." Technorati was interesting. I can see how I might use it so help find information on some topics. I typed in "fishing children of Ghana" and was rewarded with a blog that included a youtube video I'd like to use in class. I also checked out the 100 most popular blogs and felt a lack of interest in the first few pages' worth I scrolled through. Seems a lot of them were turbo-techie or 20-something sarcasm/sex sites. I don't know if I want my blog to get picked up by technorati, so I'm leaving that alone for now. I already have had people want to be my "friends" because of the classroom 2.0 badge. Right now, I don't feel like I have time for my realtime friends, much less cyberfriends.