Blogs & Wikis Their Educational Uses

1. Blogs & WikisTheir Educational Uses Tim Peters Margie Massey Colorado State University - Pueblo

2. Blogs and Wikis – So? • We are entering a new interconnected, networked world where more and more people are gaining access to the Web and its continually growing body of knowledge. And access doesn’t just mean being able to read what’s there; it means being able to create and contribute content as well. At first blush, that may not seem like such a big deal, but it is a shift that requires us to think seriously and expansively about the way we currently teach students and deliver our curricula. Will Richardson in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms

4. Our Goals • Understand the significance of these technologies for society and education • Challenge ourselves to think of the potential of these technologies in terms of pedagogy and curriculum • Develop the know-how to set up our own blog and wiki.

5. Impact of this new Web • The social connections that students are now making on the Web • The ability to share and contribute ideas and work • New expectations of collaboration • The ability to extend the walls of the classroom

6. Keeping Kids Safe • Ways to keep our kids safe • Use these tools for your own Professional Development

7. Hands on Workshop Everyone will leave with their own blog and wiki

8. CPS Question What level have you reached? • I’ve heard about blogs. • I’ve read a blog • I regularly read a blog • I’ve created a blog • I regularly update my own blog

9. The Read/Write Web Tim Berners-Lee had a grand vision for the Internet when he began development of the WWW in 1989 “The original thing I wanted to do, was make it a collaborative medium, a place where we [could] all meet and read and write”

10. The Read/Write Web • 1993: Mosaic Web- graphical interface • Still mostly “reading”

11. The Read/Write Web • Today easy Internet Publishing Tools • 53 million American adults (44% of adult internet users) had used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files, and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content online. Pew Internet and American Life Project

12. The Read/Write Web • At the beginning of 2006, almost 25 million blogs listed. As of today Technoratic.com • Adding 70,000 new blogs and a million weblog posts each day

13. The 2 way web has arrived

14. The New Read/Write Web • Creating content of all shapes and sizes is getting easier and easier • Increasing bandwidth and storage capacity

15. The people who’ll understand this best are probably just being born http://www.authorama.com/we-the-media-3.html

16. What’s Changed? • Politics – Dean Campaign • World Events – First hand accounts • Indian Ocean Tsunami • Hurricane Katrina • Reporting • Fact checking – Dan Rather • Participatory Journalism • Northwest Voice • New York Times • Huffington Post • Businesses • Ford, GM, Kodak, Microsoft

17. Hands on Activity Break • Take 15 minutes to explore the many uses of blogs http://tieconference2006.blogspot.com/

18. CPS Question/Discussion • What did you think of the blogs you browsed? • No interest • Some interest (probably will never go back) • Some interest (I’ll probably go back and have a look someday) • Very interesting (I’ll definitely go back)

19. Blogs in Schools • “K-12 educators are just now beginning to contemplate in significant numbers the ways in which this new Internet can enhance their own practice and their students learning.”

20. The New Web What needs to change about our curriculum when our students have the ability to reach audiences far beyond our classroom walls? What changes must we make in our teaching as it becomes easier to bring primary sources to our students? How do we rethink our ideas of literacy when we must prepare our students to become not only readers and writers, but editors and collaborators?

21. Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants Mark Prensky • “Today’s students, of almost any age, are far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy. • http://matthewbischoff.com/ • http://www.dylanverdi.com/ • 81% of students in grades 7-12 have email accounts • 75% have at least one IM screen name • 97% believe technology use is important in education • Fastest growing age group for using the Internet is 2-5 years old Netday Survey March 2005

22. Digital Immigrants Mark Prensky • The Web Browser is only 13 years old • Some of us still carry accents • Print out their email • Write checks to pay their bills • Use phone books • Don’t multitask well • Order through catalogues

23. Natives vs. Immigrants Read/Write web might widen the gap “I make a basic distinction (one that I think is widening) between education and schooling: people, especially young people, continue to learn- and to adopt new media– but institutions, and those who run them, are much slower to change their ways” Rheingold, 2004

24. Keeping Students Safe • More than … • Not publishing student names and pictures • Not allowing students to access obscene content • Safety now about • Responsibility, appropriateness and common sense

25. Keeping Students Safe • WWW • Overwhelming amount of inappropriate content • CIPA (Child Internet Protection Act) • Schools and libraries required to filter content • Schools must monitor online activities of minors

26. Keeping Students Safe • Inappropriate Content won’t go away • Schools can go 2 directions • Block more and more content on the web • Including appropriate sites • Teach students the skills they need to navigate the darker sides of the Web safely and effectively • Teachers of younger students should plan, test and limit the amount of freedom students have to surf

27. Keeping Students Safe • Publishing • Protecting the privacy of students • Follow school policies • Parental approval – • Sample letter • Discuss with supervisors • Discuss with students what should and should not be online • NO information on where they live, where they work and other personal information that might identify them to potential predators.

28. Keeping Students Safe • Publishing • Balancing the safety of the child with the benefits that come with students taking ownership of the work. • Who is the audience • The class, the entire Internet • What do you do with inappropriate comments

29. CPS Question/Discussion • In your school what is the policy? • No teacher web publishing • Very limited ability to publish • No student pictures and/or student names • No restrictions

30. Weblogs A Weblog is an easily created, easily updateable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection.

31. Weblogs Not built on static chunks of content They are comprised of reflections and conversations that in many cases are updated every day Blogs engage readers with ideas and questions and links. They ask readers to think and to respond. They demand interaction.

32. Publishing to the Web Journaling vs. Blogging Social tools vs. learning tools

33. Blogging in its truest form has a great deal of potential positive impact on students. • Promote critical and analytical thinking • Be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking • Promote analogical thinking • Be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information • Combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction Fernette and Brock Eide’s

34. The Pedagogy of Weblogs • Constructivist activity • Expand the walls of the classroom • Archive the learning that teachers and students do • Democratic tool that supports different learning styles • Enhance the development of expertise • Teach students our new literacies

35. A new writing genre • Connective writing • A form that forces those who do it to read carefully and critically, that demands clarity and cogency in its construction, that is done for a wide audience, and that links to the sources of the ideas expressed.

36. Connective Writing Instead of assigning student to go write, we should assign them to go read and then link to what interests them and write about why it does and what it means …because it is through quality linking…that one first comes in contact with the essential acts of blogging: close reading and interpretation. Blogging, at base, is writing down what you think when your read others. If you keep at it, others will eventually write down what they think when they read you, and you’ll enter a new realm of blogging, a new realm of human connection. Ken Smith

37. Publishing to the Web

38. Scaffolding Blogging • How to introduce blogs • Provide students or let students search for interesting and relevant sites and teach them how to write about what they find useful at those sites • Primary sources: connect to authors, scientists, politicians • Become an “expert” about a topic, comparing information from different sites

39. Blogging across the curriculum • Pre-Cal 40S • Bud’s Blog Experiment • The Write Weblog

40. Weblogs in schools • Class Portal • Online Filing Cabinet • E-portfolio • Collaborative Space • School Website

41. Hands on Activity Break • Take 15 minutes to explore the educational blogs on http://tieconference2006.blogspot.com/

42. CPS Question/Discussion • What did you think of the blogs you browsed? • Wouldn’t work in my school • Some potential, but I doubt I’ll try it myself • Looks good, and I’ll give it a try • Definitely, I’m in

43. Getting started • Read some blogs • Write your own blog – model to your students • Millions of kids are already blogging, so they certainly are enticed by the tool. But very few are using their sites as places of critical thinking and analytical writing and reflection

44. Step 1 in writing your own blog • Start small • Add links, add annotated links with what you think is important and meaningful • As you get into a rhythm of posting, add more depth • Remember this is a learning tool, not a place to air complaints. It will be part of your public record

45. Step 2 • Use it as a class portal • Homework assignments • Links • Don’t worry about using it for collaborations and conversations

46. Step 3: adding students • Have students get use to using the blog for a portal • Add discussion questions • Have students look at other blogs • Set expectations on how they should respond

47. Step 4: Students own blog • Make sure technology is comfortable • Negotiate how much of their blog is their own • Student Safety • Students, parents, and administration are clear about the expectations and the reasoning behind it. • Permissions

48. Step 4: Students own blog • Teachers role is connector • Assessment • Simply the number of posts or • Evaluate on form and content

49. Using blogger.com • Sign up @ http://www.blogger.com • Blogger for word tool • Comment control • Settings • Email comments • Students can post until teacher reads it • Teacher has full access as administrator • Blog roll • Pictures • Remove Next blog

50. Wikis • Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing. • Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder