Week 3 - Blogs | Wikis | Web Sites

To look further into the possibilities of each medium for use in learning a short look at the various elements to each is necessary…

In the beginning we created a Blog…

Plus	Minus	Interesting
Very easy to create and make posts – can be done from anywhere with internet (it’s even free at Maccas)   Teachers and/or students can create one and comment on any   It’s fun – you can be writing towards an assignment and not really know it ;)   Can be formal or conversational   Free!!	Opens the students and teachers to potential harassment   Creates a digital footprint – invites spam   Can just be another thing that teachers have to do in their day…  (need to make sure that it’s not just for interest and that there is some assessment or learning outcomes	Opens the class room to an international audience – which includes parents and extended families   Can follow other peoples blogs (e.g. those of scientists, explorers, etc) to put science into perspective for real world applications   A great tool for the hidden literacy curriculum in all schools   Students write for a global audience so there is a hidden pressure to write, reference and include accurate content responsibly

As for the Wiki and Web sites we were asked to play with, I was feeling OK with the “how to”, but wasn’t sure where to go with the “what to”…  So, I’ve cheated a little and looked into a possible topic I could be teaching at some stage.  I’ve taken this from the AustralianCurriculum - Grade 8 Science:

Cells are the basic units of living things and have specialised structures and functions.

Elaborations

1.       examining a variety of cells using a light microscope, by digital technology or by viewing a simulation

2.       distinguishing plant cells from animal or fungal cells

3.       identifying structures within cells and describing their function

4.       recognising that some organisms consist of a single cell

5.       recognising that cells reproduce via cell division

6.       describing mitosis as cell division for growth and repair

This is one unit of work that is covered in Grade 8 so I have begun to make an example Wiki and a Web Site to allow students to discover this topic…

My thoughts about my Wiki follow in a PMI analysis and my example Wiki is titled Mrs Tuckers Grade 8 Science

Plus	Minus	Interesting
Great for collaborations or group work   Great for brainstorming   Good for encouraging participation   Can imbed many forms of media   Teachers don’t control the content which invites creativity   Small costs involved	Need to have many rules to make it work and keep it ‘safe’   Only edited by one at a time – makes it an at home (outside the classroom) only tool   Not as easy to use as a blog and has limited editing controls – google docs might be better for editing options   Anyone can edit anything – unwanted changes to the inputs of others (including deleting content)	Opens the class room to an international audience   Can be a tool to demonstrate on-line etiquettes   Can include and link to any media – pictures, diagrams, documents, videos, etc…  only limited by imagination

 A contrasting PMI for the use of a web site in the classroom has also been completed.  I thought a lot about the application of a web site while making one and have the following thoughts…

Plus	Minus	Interesting
Authors control content, and there can be many authors – possibilities for group creations   Many more editing and formatting options than available with a wiki   Global   Free to very expensive (you get what you pay for…)   Student works can be ‘published’	Not a many opportunities for feedback   Can be time consuming to have all the ‘bells and whistles’	Again with the hidden literacy in the curriculum…   Great for needing to know content and context at the time of creation   Can incorporate any other forms of media/technology   Lots of opportunities for using polls or surveys to get feedback or test students   Can bring parents and the community into the classroom

I’m not sure if I’m getting too ahead of myself (in respect of school capacities or curriculum), but I see a real niche for on-line tools in student homework and assessments, that hasn’t seemed to come up in other discussions.  I analyse a lot of data for my current job and many of the massive data sets that I deal with are gained through online surveys.  If you used a survey tool or something simular to create a homework sheet, quiz, test or exam, then you have the benefits of:

• No more ‘I forgot my homework sheet’
• Ease of marking – can be treated as a data set and automatically mark multiple choice questions and one word/number answers
• Reduces the amount to paper used
• Reduced pressure created by physically sitting in a formal test/exam environment
• Can use any of the tools we’ve looked at to do this (blog, wiki, web site, etc)

But to truly explore this option, you also must consider some of the downsides:

• Opportunities for cheating
• Students who don’t have internet access
• Students who have limited typing or computer skills maybe disadvantaged

I also found many examples on the web and one stand out was created by a science class where group work produced an encyclopaedic like web site with links and information about their project on planets – something to put into the back of my mind for my own classes of the future…

My example web site can be viewed at: mrstuckersgrade8scienceclass.weebly.com

These tools all focus on information transfer, and another massive advantage of all forms of communication is that it can be accessed by students and/or parents/guardians (who are pivotal in the education of students) anywhere, anytime, anyhow…  The little details that students can sometimes get hung-up on can be made available in black and white (or red or yellow, or blue, etc. etc etc.), assessment dates and requirements, upcoming school or class room events, and any other information and notes for families (many of which I find littering my kitchen bench and fridge can all be digital…).  It can also work in reverse, if the parent needs to contact the teacher about anything…  (Particularly since schools are big on documenting attendance and parents providing a ‘note’ for absentees.)

We also keep hearing that the ICT’s we will be exposed to at our school will depend on the individual school and the security limitations imposed by Education Queensland (e.g. YouTube not allowed in state schools), or Catholic Education, etc..  I think that this needs to be explored further and once we are ‘real’ teachers, we will have another steep learning curve to master the tools, software and facilities that our school has available. And, as next generation teachers, I also think that it is our job to keep on top of technology and encourage its use and its possibilities.