CEDO 535 - Facilitating Collaboration using Web Tools - Wk 2

     We still talked a lot about blogs this week but we also started a more in depth analysis of Wikipedia and Wikis in general.  So here is Wikipedia in a nutshell for me: Wikipedia is a good resource for information - no doubt.  The information is as accurate as you might find almost anywhere else.  I can get past the oddball additions that some people make to entries that don't seem to contribute any value to the post.  I can get past people adding things in sometimes inappropriate places in the entry ruining the organizational logic of the entry.  What I can't get past (and all of my teachers feel the same way) is exactly what I stated above: it's almost as accurate and credible as other sources.  Teachers will never get over the fact that wikipedia entries are formed by anyone and that you could write anything and as long enough people agree with it or it can't be refuted it will stay part of the definition.  Here is a video of Stephen Colbert as he explains his word of the day...WIKIALITY.  If you're familiar with Colbert you'll understand that he is being sarcastic but you still get that thought in the back of your mind that there is the possibility of an inaccuracy like that happening in Wikipedia because of the way it is setup.  I would ideally like to convince my teachers to at least allow students to use Wikipedia to gather info and potential sources by looking at citations from contributors but I can't, in good conscience, recommend Wikipedia as a cite-able source.
     Last week I started a blog concerning our potential implementation of iPads in the middle school next year.  I opened it up to our current 6th and 7th graders and I posed a specific topic starter question.  The idea is to get additional feedback from the students themselves so that we can add that to our justification of this 1:1 initiative.  Students are required to respond to my question(s) every 2 weeks.  I went over examples of thoughtful responses and tried to model a few more responses that showed a higher level of thinking than just saying "I think iPads would be cool".  While I am happy to have the students blogging, I haven't really tapped into the full potential of using blogging.  The best thing about blogging in education is the collaboration aspect and I haven't really fostered that in this situation.  I could've gotten these same responses by having them fill out a Google form every two weeks.  Two days ago, however, a student responded to another student's post.  THAT is what I'm looking for!!  I will wait and see what happens as the responses keep coming in but I'd like to do something with a topic that is maybe easier for students to start responding to each other.
     Twitter...ugh.  We had to sign up for a Twitter account.  I signed up for one and that is pretty much as far as I got.  I hate the whole concept of Twitter and I still have yet to see it's value in education.  It is way too overbearing for me.  I remember the feeling I had when we did the Posterous pic-a-day thing where it just hung over my head each day.  Well, Twitter is even worse which is why I never started using it in the first place.  I suppose the idea here is to follow someone who does useful Twitter posts.  I honestly have enough Google calendar reminders, apps running, etc in my life where I don't want to see my devices bombarded with Twitter updates or people posting - useful or not.  And if you're not willing to have immediate Twitter updates given to you, which I'm not, then it is not going to be of any use to you.  I picture the profile of the person who can use Twitter the most effectively as this: single, no kids, frequents coffee shops or bistros, is always looking for something to do, has lots of extra spare time.  That is the opposite of where I'm at right now.  Gotta suck it up to do this paper though so send me a Tweet!!

CEDO 535 - Facilitating Collaboration using Web Tools - Wk 1

     First week of a new class...Facilitating Collaboration using Web Tools.  This class looks to get more in depth about using Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts in an educational setting.  This first week we specifically explored Blogging.  We were asked to read the first 3 chapters of our book "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" by Will  Richardson.  The first chapter was an eye opener for several reasons...mostly from the perspective of how much blogs are used in society already and how powerful their impact has been.  It  provided lots of evidence of how blogs have infiltrated politics, journalism, and business.  I took notes to use when I talk to my staff about incorporating blogging into their classrooms.  The second chapter full of examples of the role that blogs can play in education.  Again, a good way for me to justify my teachers using them as part of their classroom assignments.  The third chapter brought to my attention the strategy of "starting small".  I have always perceived setting up blogging with the students as a daunting task because of trying to create individual accounts, giving students email addresses, and then trying to administer and censor the blogs.  The book suggested starting by explaining blogging and its advantages and then modeling appropriate responses.  When students seem to grasp that the book suggests starting with a classroom blog.  I thought that was a great idea because it is an excellent warm-up for students and it doesn't require very much micro-management on the teacher's part.
     The other assignment we had was to review several blogging creation sites and provide a write-up of our thoughts.  I reviewed Edmodo, WordPress, and Blogger.  Edmodo wasn't really a blogging site but I still enjoyed looking at it closer.  It is essentially a student management system but I liked that you could open some communication lines with their built in message board a la Facebook.  I already use a comment section on my Google Site that I use for my classroom website so I can accomplish that communication without making students log in to a SMS.  I liked how Edmodo allowed you to connect to other teachers and there were a few cool features like creating badges for assignments.  WordPress and Blogger are both great blogging creation sites that are easy to use for beginners and feature some advanced options to satisfy expert bloggers.  I think I'll probably try WordPress when we introduce blogging to our middle school students since I don't have to deal with students having Google accounts.  My middle school students have email addresses through Gaggle.net but not Google accounts...yet.