I always wondered where the word wiki or wikipedia came from. It was quite interesting that it was the Hawiian word for quick, from wiki-wiki. I learn quite a lot about Wikipedia that I did not know. I did know that anyone could change something on any page, I just didn't understand, then, how they wouldn't be so sloppy with terrible inaccuracy. I found the idea that for the few people who intentionally or unintentionally put inaccurate information of Wikipedia sites that many, many more people are on top of that and correct it to a much accurate information. This is really amazing to me. It is self regulated and it works amazingly well. I can not help but to see the people who mess with the facts on Wikipedia as human virus or bacteria, and the onslot of correctors as the immune system. This metaphor just blew me away at how similar the science of global technology could be to our biological system. It is just so amazing to think of the web as a working organism..
I have not done enough on my wiki yet. I have enjoyed the blog because I feel that I can be more creative on it. However the information sharing on the wiki is good for following up on classes and accessing outside sorces like RSS feeds. The blog feels more interactive and personal than the wiki, but I did put a chat feature that I like on my wiki. I think the collaborative effort is quite fascinating and the wiki has things that I still need to learn about. I think the rest of this chapter was focused on actually being on the computer and learning in a hands on way. I need to work on the wiki a lot more to be able to understand the usefulness of it in relation to the work I am doing with my students.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Chapter 3: Weblogs Getting Started
In this chapter I was excited by the possibility of using the weblogs to do the form of "stream of consciousness" we do in our Interpersonal Dynamics class. There is a website by Julia Camreron that I am going to explore. http://en.wordpress.com/tag/the-artists-way/ The writing process is important and even in a social group type class we can accommodate writing across the curriculum. I like the idea of the teacher responding in a teacher blog summing up or weaving together all the opinions shared in the writing and in the class discussions.
The concept of modeling by having a blog is critical in my opinion. In our class I write along with the students as they formulate their opinions which we later discuss. Modelings also helps the student understand that "Public writing demands discretion" says Richardson. Another really important aspect mentioned in this chapter was the importance of student blogs is getting the comments. Comments make us feel like we are being heard. They have the ability to give feedback and with the teacher modeling and monitoring appropriate feedback in blog comments in order to teach appropriate online manners. All good stuff for me to learn as I incorporate these technologies into my curriculum
The concept of modeling by having a blog is critical in my opinion. In our class I write along with the students as they formulate their opinions which we later discuss. Modelings also helps the student understand that "Public writing demands discretion" says Richardson. Another really important aspect mentioned in this chapter was the importance of student blogs is getting the comments. Comments make us feel like we are being heard. They have the ability to give feedback and with the teacher modeling and monitoring appropriate feedback in blog comments in order to teach appropriate online manners. All good stuff for me to learn as I incorporate these technologies into my curriculum
Chapter 2: Pedagogy and Practice
I continue to look at these chapters in educational technology from the social lens. One of the things that the author speaks about is information gathering as a primary source of educational use. Being a school social worker, I have a broader concern for students as than just information gatherers. I see them as social beings, and school is the perfect place to learn social protocols or norms in our microcosmic high school society. Both information gathering and social learning is important to the education of high school students who are getting ready to embark upon a more independent life after secondary school.
In this chapter I became very aware of how many times the words referring to a meeting place within the world of cyberspace were mentioned. The words mentioned were: spaces, community, environment, and collaborative space. These words were used throughout this chapter. In my opinion many areas of the web have become social gatherings, per say. The interaction with blogs, blog comments, and chats are relational as well as information gathering. Collaboration and opinion sharing are interpersonal and educational.
Richardson writes "What's somewhat discouraging, to me at least, is that teenager use these sites more as social tools than learning tools than learning tools, and their behavior is sometimes reckless." This is an interesting viewpoint to me. I strongly believe that the web is already a highly social system and the problem is that our younger generation has been using it before more mature parents and teachers are able to teach web social skill. It is imperative that as adults, particularly teachers and social workers are able to learn the technology in order to keep up and teach a new form of social skills. This is something I am very interested in. I currently teach a new class called Interpersonal Dynamics and when working on the curriculum this summer we were sure to incorporate social networking social skills. This is very exciting to me.
In this chapter I became very aware of how many times the words referring to a meeting place within the world of cyberspace were mentioned. The words mentioned were: spaces, community, environment, and collaborative space. These words were used throughout this chapter. In my opinion many areas of the web have become social gatherings, per say. The interaction with blogs, blog comments, and chats are relational as well as information gathering. Collaboration and opinion sharing are interpersonal and educational.
Richardson writes "What's somewhat discouraging, to me at least, is that teenager use these sites more as social tools than learning tools than learning tools, and their behavior is sometimes reckless." This is an interesting viewpoint to me. I strongly believe that the web is already a highly social system and the problem is that our younger generation has been using it before more mature parents and teachers are able to teach web social skill. It is imperative that as adults, particularly teachers and social workers are able to learn the technology in order to keep up and teach a new form of social skills. This is something I am very interested in. I currently teach a new class called Interpersonal Dynamics and when working on the curriculum this summer we were sure to incorporate social networking social skills. This is very exciting to me.
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