Blogs and Wikis in Education

When I Googled "educational blogs" I was given many sites that listed their favorite blog pages. Navigating through them gave me an array of educational subjects--school politics, teaching strategies, teaching theories--but for the most part the blog was a place for educators to collaborate on their approaches to teaching. Searching for "educational wikis" brought up pages that gave more direct examples of Wikis in the classroom, rather than actual pages from the teachers' perspective like the blogs. Through Bing I was directed to many of the same pages as through Google, but given more blogs on teaching techniques and websites to register for a Wiki page formatted for educational/classroom use. Lastly, I searched through Ask Jeeves. I was given the same blogs and Wikis as through Google and Bing.

By skimming through blogs, like Successful Teaching, I was able to find dozens of web resources, even some interactive pages! I plan definitely on including some of them in my Teacher Web page. Literacy is Priceless was my favorite find of the day. The host includes tips on teaching, technology tools, and posts free literary resources. Being an English major, I will be sure to check out Literacy is Priceless more in-depth for further insight and ideas. As far as finding ideas relevant to student use, 24 Hour Blog explains the benefits of allowing young minds to give their two cents through the internet, and more specifically, through video. Monitoring the use of comments through blogs and videos allows students to build confidence through expression, as well as technology skills through hands-on practice.

Educational Wikis had examples of activities students could do, from a variety of content areas. English Place serves as a Wiki version of a writing space were students, mostly ELL, can practice their English reading and writing skills. Wikis in Education was a website designed for teachers to create classroom appropriate Wikis, through the use of the sites templates and ideas. This site can be a quick go-to for putting together a Wiki for a group classroom activity.

Blogs can be used in the classroom for curriculum development, for sharing ones thoughts on education, and for giving support to fellow teachers. Wikis give students the opportunity to create an interactive workspace for small group or whole class activities.

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RSS readers are tools that wrangle up news content of ones liking and then group them into a single page. I just created my first RSS feed, and added a couple of the blogs that I found while searching "educational blogs."

For the classroom, RSS feeds can help students collect information for research assignments, as well as help keep them with current events relevant to their interests.

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Blogs and Wikis can be useful for hands-on participation and practice with interactive sites. It is important to monitor what students can do and see while online. Using both blogs and Wikis requires responsibility as well as trust in one's students. If my class proves they can handle the freedom and fun of the web, I'll surely be creating assignments paired up with blogs, Wikis, and RSS feeds.