Just Wiki It

It's funny how internet related lingo invades our daily lives. "Google It" and "Wiki It" have become everyday phrases. Certainly, the availability of information is a wonderful thing, but I feel as though our students have become too reliant on wiki (wikipedia in specific) for information and are missing the point of the read/write web. My students tend to use wikipedia as a reference source, oftentimes without regard for the fact that it is open to editing by anyone and may not be 100% reliable.

I think that one of the most advantageous uses of the wiki technology is for teaching writing. I can see excellent opportunities for students to compose and peer edit, tracking changes and really thinking about the writing process. Too often students are asked to compose in a vacuum, when the reality is that most of us ask for help or editing from a peer before we have to "publish" something. Wikis would facilitate this process by making each student's work easily accessible to other students. And with the ability to track changes the students and the teacher could see where the advice is coming from. My one big concern with doing this is that it would become a logistical assessment nightmare! How do you assess teh quality of peer revision on a wiki? I suppose it's not that much more difficult than doing so with handwritten peer revision, but it seems daunting, all the same.

Finding ways to use the technology

I am going to start tomorrow with my rss feed experiment. I set up a my yahoo page to read my rss feeds at school (since bloglines isn't available), and I am going to demonstrate how to set up an rss feed for my Model UN club members. They are going to be writing their resolutions and position papers, and then keeping up with research on both for the next two months, and I think that using rss feeds will be a great tool for them to have the most up to date information possible. I'm starting with this group because they are academically gifted, and I know that they are all willing to try something new. If it works with them then I will teach my AP US History students, and if it works with them then I will expand it to my American Government class.

I would really like to have the kids blogging, too, but I'm just not sure to what end I would have them do it. I don't want to ask them to blog for the sake of blogging - the technology resources aren't available to justify this - so I think that I am going to hold off for now.

In the weeds

In the restaurant business there's a saying for being faaaaaaaaar behind on your table service: In the Weeds! That's where I am right now with my classroom service. I have been out so many days in the last three weeks with sick children that I have fallen incredibly far behind. Add to that the three clubs (????) that I have somehow found myself sponsoring -- not to mention being a senior class sponsor -- and I just can't seem to get back on top of all the work.

I am really in love with the idea of blogging and using blogging for professional growth and as a classroom instruction tool, but I don't have the time that I would like to sit and explore a variety of blogs from other teachers out there. I feel like there is so much more that I could find, and so many more ideas for using this tool that I am missing out on.