Beginning with chapter 4, I'll start by saying that anytime someone mentions Wikipedia I always think about this clip from the TV show The Office:
That said I love Wikipedia. While certainly not perfect I think it is one of the most powerful tools on the web and is an amazing force in the continuing democratization of knowledge. Not to mention an almost unparalleled, on the internet at least, level of accuracy. If I haven't crossed the line into overstatement yet let me do that now by saying that in my humble opinion Wikipedia is one of the greatest collaborative efforts undertaken by human kind.
This is a topic that I think absolutely needs to be taught in school and not just left to the few occasions the Librarian has with the kids. Creating and discussing a class wiki would be a great way to hook the students in before even mentioning Wikipedia. The reality is that many of us overuse and/or rely on Wikipedia far too much. Looking at the pros and cons of the resource and what other alternatives are available (and in what situations would it be best to use them) while creating and using a wiki would make for a great unit in my class.
Initially I thought I would have the students create one about a topic we are learning in class such as Bridge Types or Galloping Gertie or Newton's laws of motion but then I realized that a better version already exists on Wikipedia as you can see from the links above and it probably would make sense to make our own as they would probably get the info from there anyway. Perhaps it would be better to make a wiki about the experience of designing creating and testing a class project?
In regards to chapter 3 I continue to think about ways to introduce blogging to my students but still have some big concerns. Initially I was thinking of starting small as Richardson recommends and use a blog to post daily assignments and objectives. The more I think about it the less it makes sense though. For one thing I have a schedule where the year is divided up into 5 rotations of about 36 consecutive class days each. I have 6 classes a day and see each group of students for two of the rotations for the year. The rotating nature of the schedule makes it more difficult to use a blog due to its chronological nature as I would end up repeating/rewriting a lot. While I have thought about some workarounds I already tend to pretty time inefficient so I'm not sure that would be the best use of everyone's time. I'll keep thinking about this one and maybe try it with just a couple of classes at first. Can't see how it goes until I start.
The other big issue for me is digital safety. It would only take one student posting something inappropriate, accidentally or otherwise, to potentially jeopardize a lot of things I'd rather not jeopardize. I guess I could start by keeping the blog(s) "in house" but in my mind that really runs counter to what blogs an blogging are all about. Still have a lot to think about and work out as far as blogging with students go.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed.). Corwin Press.
Richardson presented facts to convince me about the validity of wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteEric, if you used blogging in your school setting, I am almost sure your district has a policy requiring you to moderate comments. That would mean before any student comment goes public, you would see it and have to decide if it is appropriate. Moreover, the use of a blog would give you plenty of opportunities to discuss with your students responsible digital citizenship and etiquette, a topic that we cannot dismiss.
ReplyDelete