Thoughts on Blogging and Wikis
First, I’ll start with the genre that interested me least- the wiki. I read “Making the Case for a Wiki,” and I have to say that it really didn’t persuade me to start using it as a tool in my classroom. I have to say that I did go into reading the article with a bias, my only experience with a wiki being Wikipedia, which I feel is an unreliable source. I hate it when my students use that as a reference (even when I tell them not to), but I know that when they type something into Google or whatever, that Wikipedia entries are one of the first things to pop up. They don’t understand that they could create or edit an entry, or that they could be getting their information from someone who really knows very little about the subject, or has posted incorrect information.
But to get off of my own personal feelings about wikis, and onto the article, I think it actually reinforced my issues with wikis. Reading about the “edit wars” that take place over controversial issues only confirmed to me that there are serious issues with wikis— as far as I know, no one can delete your blog, or change your words. I suppose if the wiki had a page locking system as Tonkin suggests, then it would improve the authenticity of the wiki, and a reader could see the natural flow and progression of an idea as it is shaped. I do think the “mapping” that can take place with a wiki could be useful as well, but overall I don’t think that I will be using wikis in my classroom.
On a more positive note, I do think that blogging could be something I utilize in my teaching. I read both ”When Blogging Goes Bad…” and “New Jersery High School Learns the ABCs of Blogging,” and they both started to get the ball rolling in terms of what I could do with my students next year. I think that Krause’s story was really helpful in that he modeled what not to do, and I was able to pick up some pointers for blogging with my students. I think his biggest mistake was that the assignments and expectations were not clear to the students, and I believe he knows that. That is one thing I learned very early on in teaching— you have to spell it all out for them, or else you’ll be disappointed in the results. He also assumed that because the students were graduate students, they would be more internally motivated to do work voluntarily— well, we all know what happens when you assume. When I do use blogging in my classroom, I now know I need to be very clear about the expectations— what I want posted, how frequently, responding to the postings of other students etc.
So even though his article was about blogging gone awry, it was still very helpful to me. The article about the New Jersey high school was pretty simplistic, a cheerleader of sorts for blogging— since I read it after Krause’s article there wasn’t anything terribly new or informational about it. It was simply an example of an effective way to use blogging in your classroom that echoed what Kajder said in Chapter 8, and is an example to follow. I would have liked to hear more about how the teacher set it up, student opinions, assignments (i.e. what the study guide assignment looked like), how he got the students motivated etc. I think he could have done a lot more with that article.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Journal Entry Week 3
Courtney Blake
ENG 697 Reflective Journal
Week 3 Readings
Observations/Quotations
Response/Reflection
Email
“While rushing to send an email…we don’t always take the time to consider tone, grammar, and conventions such as capitalization and punctuation” (99).
This is definitely a problem that my students have— whenever they email me an essay, or have a question about an assignment that they ask over email, there is absolutely no attention paid to writing in complete sentences, or using proper grammar whatsoever. I think Kajder’s idea about having the students compose in Word or whatever first would help in school, but you can’t guarantee that they will do that at home. While I agree that it allows introverted students a safe space to communicate with their peers and I, I am not sure if I can require emailing in my classroom, at least not as a homework assignment, since many of my students don’t have computers, or the internet. I would have to come up with an alternate use. I did check out Epals a little bit, and since it isn’t blocked, that might be a good place to start.
Discussion boards
I like the idea of a discussion board, because as Kajder writes, it “allows for learning to occur as students’ questions arise, rather than having them retain the question for discussion six or even twelve hours later” (102). One of the biggest issues in my classroom is that often times I will have 20+ students all wanting to share a story or experience, answer a question etc., and I can’t call on all of them. A discussion board would allow them to post their thoughts without having to wait their turn, miss a turn etc. And it would save a ton of time— I could hear what they all have to say without using valuable class time to hear it!
Listservs
This might be a good way to keep in touch with parents. I need to look into it a little bit more, but it sounds like it would be a lot easier than creating a newsletter and having to mail it home.
Virtual Field Trips
I browsed around www.globalschoolnet.org and www.field-guides.com to see what those were all about. Global School seems like it could be more interactive and like it has more possibilities than Field Guides. Also, some of the web pages on the field trip I took on the Field Guide website were blocked on our server, so that could create some issues. But they are definitely worth looking into a bit more.
ENG 697 Reflective Journal
Week 3 Readings
Observations/Quotations
Response/Reflection
“While rushing to send an email…we don’t always take the time to consider tone, grammar, and conventions such as capitalization and punctuation” (99).
This is definitely a problem that my students have— whenever they email me an essay, or have a question about an assignment that they ask over email, there is absolutely no attention paid to writing in complete sentences, or using proper grammar whatsoever. I think Kajder’s idea about having the students compose in Word or whatever first would help in school, but you can’t guarantee that they will do that at home. While I agree that it allows introverted students a safe space to communicate with their peers and I, I am not sure if I can require emailing in my classroom, at least not as a homework assignment, since many of my students don’t have computers, or the internet. I would have to come up with an alternate use. I did check out Epals a little bit, and since it isn’t blocked, that might be a good place to start.
Discussion boards
I like the idea of a discussion board, because as Kajder writes, it “allows for learning to occur as students’ questions arise, rather than having them retain the question for discussion six or even twelve hours later” (102). One of the biggest issues in my classroom is that often times I will have 20+ students all wanting to share a story or experience, answer a question etc., and I can’t call on all of them. A discussion board would allow them to post their thoughts without having to wait their turn, miss a turn etc. And it would save a ton of time— I could hear what they all have to say without using valuable class time to hear it!
Listservs
This might be a good way to keep in touch with parents. I need to look into it a little bit more, but it sounds like it would be a lot easier than creating a newsletter and having to mail it home.
Virtual Field Trips
I browsed around www.globalschoolnet.org and www.field-guides.com to see what those were all about. Global School seems like it could be more interactive and like it has more possibilities than Field Guides. Also, some of the web pages on the field trip I took on the Field Guide website were blocked on our server, so that could create some issues. But they are definitely worth looking into a bit more.
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