Third Grade Teacher

Stacey’s Wiki Page

Absolutely I see a wiki in my future.  I love how a wiki can grow and change with different assignments and how each student can be a contributor.  Wikis appear to be an excellent way of engaging students in learning.  The collaborative method of learning is often more appealing to students and a wiki makes it easy to design lessons that are constructive yet collaborative.  I thought the Kubler Reading wiki was a first rate example of constructive, collaborative learning.  The wiki was organized by assignments or roles each reader in the group would be responsible for while reading a chapter.  Each chapter had a link under the assignment.  For example, one reader would be assigned to be the Character Cartographer for chapter one and assigned to be the Word Wizard for chapter 2.  I loved this way of reading a novel.

The Go West wiki was a fabulous example of using other tools within the wiki.  The students used Timeliner,  Inspiration, Power Point, and others tools.  Using these tools added another dimension to the wiki and made it interesting to read.  The organization of the Go West wiki also made it easy to read.  It had four main categories with sub categories under each.  All the categories were listed on the home page, so it was easy to find information.  Inspiration was used to create a graphic organizer for the introduction.  I would have linked the bubbles in the graphic organizer to the page where the information was found. 

The wiki Schools in the Past was a good idea but the organization made it hard to read.  I felt overwhelmed by so much information on one page.  I think it would have been beneficial to make each category a new page.  I liked the format of the writing on this wiki.  The children just added short sentences or phrases.  It would be easy for each student to be a contributor.   

Mind boggling…..there is so much useful information in the blogosphere, especially for educators.  I have spent too much time reading the blogs I subscribed to because I’m too curious.  It is like eating popcorn and I have no self control.  When I learn how to be efficient in reading blogs I’m sure will enjoy my reader more.  One blog I found particularly interesting and potentially very useful was “Free Technology for Teachers.”    The blog is ”a review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them.  Ideas for technology integration in education.”  In one blog Mr. Byrne, the author,  discusses Navify, a visual encyclopedia that combines wikipedia with images, videos, and comments.  Of course, I spent much time typing in subjects and looking at the videos and images.  I will definitely use this during the school year.  Snag Films is another site Mr. Byrne introduces to educators.  As Byrne says, Snag Films solves two problems.  First, it offers many documentaries free to the classroom.  Secondly, if a student misses the viewing you can embed the documentary in your blog and the student can watch later.  I will be visiting this blog often.    

I found the post by Sharon Peters on Infinite Thinging Machine very interesting.  She shared how she is trying to bridge the digital divide between countries through Teachers Without Borders.  She spent six weeks last summer and will spend seven weeks this summer in South Africa and Kenya with a TWB team.  The team facilitates workshops for educatiors in these countries.  Some educators who attend have never touched a computer.   The goal of TWB is to have in-country educators do all the facilitating by the fourth year.  Peters is excited about the program because she sees ”the incredible potential that online tools and environments offer to educators to connect, collaborate and share on a global level.”

Blog reading is engaging  and interesting because of the different perspectives you receive from the visitor comments.  The comments often take a different look at or add information to the post.  This makes blog reading more appealing and informative than other forms of reading.  As a teacher I found the student comments especially enlightening.  It was heartening to read how encouraging students are to each other.  In the blog Extreme Biology: Imagine Turning On the Faucet and Nothing Coming Out numerous students thanked Emily for starting a discussion about wasting water during a drought. 

I loved the idea of the scribe in the blog “Scribe Post” and definitely see how having a scribe in the class could facilitate learning.  It is an excellent way of seeing the student’s perspective of what is taught.  It could be a form of assessment that might by more fun than the usual paper and pencil test.  Also,  it could be a quick way of discovering where students are struggling.             

But…..blog reading does take a lot of time.  I tried scanning some of the articles, but I was afraid of missing content.  I found myself jumping around in my reading and going to different articles that were mentioned in the posts.  For example, while reading Pair-a-Dimes (David Truss): Students, Information and Schools I opened a post about rote memorization.  This made blog reading interesting but very time consuming.  This is not the way I usually read. 

The writing in most of the blogs and in the comments was informal.  This made the blogs engaging to read, but it was also distracting.  I wanted to remind the authors to proofread their work.  There is also incorrect information in some of the blogs, which is disturbing to me.  For example in the post Boeum’s Scribe for December 4th the student has numerous mathematical mistakes in her summary. 

I have to admit my first thoughts about Web 2.0 are not all positive.  On the positive side, I am excited about the prospect of students being more engaged in their own learning and taking advantage of the apprenticeship model of learning.  I especially like the idea of having a dialogue with readers while they are doing the reading.  On the other hand, the idea of the model of an expert giving way to the age of  collaboration makes me nervous.  How much confidence can we have in the information we find on the Web?  As Steve Hargadon states, Web 2.0 offers a “tidal wave of information” to educators.  It will take time to figure out what information to give our attention to.  Time is something we never have enough of in third grade.  I do not understand the statement “the answer to information overload is to produce more information.”  Also, I am uncomfortable with the concept of social learning becoming the main method of instruction.  I personally learn best when I work on my own.  I have found that study groups waste time, especially if I haven’t put in the time learning on my own first.  I am looking forward to this course turning my negatives reactions to positives.  

This is my second attempt at K12learning2.0. Watching how colleagues have used technology in their classrooms this past year has made me want to try again. The most challenging habit for me will be learning to use technology to my advantage.  I am not in the habit of using technology to gain knowledge or information.  I like to use the resources I have been comfortable with in the past.  It seems the internet often offers too much information and it takes time to figure out what information to give my attention to….time I haven’t wanted to give.  The most important habit will be to teach or mentor others.  I have found it true that I don’t possess knowledge till I teach it to someone else.  The expression ”watch one, do one, teach one” is true.  Yet, I find I lack the confidence to teach technology.  The easiest habit for me in lifelong learning is to accept responsiblity for my own learning.  I enjoy learning and am happy for the opportunity to learn something I would not attempt on my own.