Essentially, wikis are web pages that allow users to edit page content collaboratively. The changes are viewable by all visitors to the site. The editing tools are simple–usually resembling tools available in a standard word processor–and require no knowledge of HTML authoring to use. An excellent example of the collaborative power of a wiki can be found in WikiTravel, a free world-wide travel guide capable of being edited and updated by people who have actually experienced travel in various locations. For example, I have edited and added several elements to the section on Florence, Italy, based on my travel there last summer. The result is an up-to-date guide with information contributed by people who have actually been there.

Wikis are excellent tools for educators as well. They provide an easy method to capture content of class discussions from a variety of perspectives and to preserve it for future classes or to post and edit a collaborative document.

A nice illustration of the power of collaboration based on wiki use is available from YouTube.

When to Blog and When to Wiki

All content on a wiki can be edited by any visitor to the site. The best use of wikis is to provide a shared, single-location environment for collaboration and group editing. For example, I use wikis to make notes on class discussions and ask my students to edit or add to the notes in order to capture some of the important topics we discuss. These notes are available for review later or as an information source for future classes.

Content on blogs cannot be edited by anyone other than the author. Blogs also typically feature active comment areas for readers to post comments and answer questions about blog content. Observations posted on blogs are not intended to be edited, but they are intended to engender discussions and questions through reader comments.

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I’ve been doing some reading on the concept of “Teaching 2.0″–a loosely defined response to the Web 2.0 concept that is transforming some of our most basic social, political, economic, and personal communication models through increased emphasis on social networking, collaborating, and sharing of information. Web 2.0 technologies–chats, blogs, IM, wikis, social networks (e.g., FaceBook, Del.icio.us, Flickr, etc.), podcasting, YouTube–have transformed the way a generation interacts and relates to the world at large. Advocates of Teaching 2.0 are working with these technologies to provide students with more access to primary source knowledge and to give them the opportunity to work with the context of subject matter rather than just the subject matter itself.

“University 2.0″ is an outgrowth of the Teaching 2.0 concept. Practitioners are dedicated to using Web 2.0 concepts to transform teaching at the college level through enhanced course design, teaching methods, and student expectations. A question recently posted to eLearnSpace nicely summed up the need for examining University 2.0:

“…what are universities across the world doing about this information revolution? How are we demonstrating to our future students that we are not only a part of this human network but that we are leaders in the movement? Most universities were built and designed to function effectively in a single geographic location to a specific group of people in a print based environment. Now that we can communicate with people around the world instantly and access books, journals, presentations, videos, and more online, we should think of the world as our classroom. Future students understand this information age and expect universities to be on the front lines. As the world moves toward a global economy and information can be accessed from anywhere in the world, universities need to think more critically about how they want to proceed in developing leaders of this brave new digital age.”

Ken Yarmosh offers some additional insights into the effectiveness of University 2.0 with a post to TechnoSight. I was particularly drawn to this quote:

“University 2.0 or perhaps Education 2.0 is the ultimate way that we can ensure learning really never stops. I’d love to read the blogs or listen to the podcasts of some of the professors and teachers I had throughout high school and college…”

In the real world of UAF SOE, it has often struck me that we need to figure out some way to support our students once they have their own classrooms and are looking for current information about issues relating to their own teaching. How cool would it be to be able to read a favorite instructor’s blog on current practices, to listen to a podcast or view a video that kept the former student connected to the university and also provided him/her with current information? Further, what if that former student could respond with real world observations from his/her classroom that could enhance the instructor’s insights into teaching practices and expectations? They can, of course, if the instructor and/or the former student maintains a blog…

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Still very interested in investigating the idea of evaluating blogs, I recently came across an entry from the TechLearning Blog that caught my attention. An elementary school teacher in Shanghai who blogs with his students had some of his fifth grade students come up with their own rubrics for evaluating blogs. The results are interesting and can be seen on this page.

But once you get there, keep reading. The discussion evolves into a more general discussion of digital writing and wikis, with some interesting remarks from a high school social studies teacher who uses wikis to help students understand complex concepts through collaborative wiki writing.

In many places in the discussion, the term “Teaching 2.0″ is mentioned. Here is a quote from the Techlearning Blog about the nature of Teaching 2.0:

“Teacher 2.0 puts students at the center of the learning experience; they [sic] allow students to control the learning environment and create content that contributes to the global body of information. Teacher 2.0 creates an environment that allows learning to happen. They [sic] guide students by engaging in conversations either virtual or face-to-face.Teacher 2.0 understands that learning occurs when every member of the class is both a student and a teacher. That teaching and learning goes beyond the walls of the physical classroom. [sic] Teacher 2.0 understands that content is ever changing; therefore focusing on skills that help us understand the changing nature of content is more critical than the content itself. Teacher 2.0 is caring, compassionate, and is willing to take risks.”

I am not aware of the term “Teaching 2.0.” I’m going to investigate it more. Perhaps it will become the focal point of another blog entry.

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If you require that students create and maintain a blog, you are probably obligated to evaluate it some way. I don’t much like the idea of just “counting” them–i.e., giving points for creating a blog to satisfy a requirement regardless of the content (much for the same reasons that I dislike giving points for participating in a discussion thread). So I have been looking around to see how other educators evaluate student blogs.

Being a fan of using rubrics to both outline and evaluate student projects, I looked there first and found several examples that are worth considering. The 2-Cents Worth blog has a very good discussion of evaluating blogs, pointing out the essential difference between evaluating blogging as an activity and the content of a blog as writing. Both are important aspects of what I might be looking for in a student blog–I want them to understand the concept of blogging but also to consider the quality of their writing. The Comments section of 2-Cents worth is worth reading as well–lots of good ideas and links, a few of which I’ll reproduce here. For example, check out this blog reflection rubric.

Bud’s Blog Experiment has some interesting insights on blogging as a student activity. Don’t forget to read the comments.

Do you have any thoughts to share about evaluating student blogging?

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Writing for an audience is an important aspect of effective written communication. We should probably be asking ourselves how blogging might serve this purpose at all grade/age levels. In this post, I’ll look specifically at blogging with elementary students.

There are many obvious issues related to blogging with elementary students–personal privacy, content control, copyright and plagiarism, FERPA issues, and so forth. Simply turning elementary students loose to write whatever they want can easily lead to problems. On the other hand, blogging is a perfect tool for writing for an audience. Think of it as the ultimate Writer’s Workshop–post your story, receive comments from readers, and interact with them to improve your writing. What could be better?

The folks at haranbanjo.com have come up with a potential solution for some of the problems. KidzBlog (nice web 2.0 title…) is a blogging tool built especially for elementary students (although it could easily be used with older students). One advantage is that KidzBlog can be housed on a local computer at a school, keeping the blogs “in house” rather than on the public internet. Blogs can also be posted to publicly accessible sites. There is a commenting function that can be turned off once it is set up.

The KidzBlog User Guide explains how the program works, and the KidzBlog Weblog discusses some issues with the program, including pricing. It’s not free.

I’d be interested to hear what you think about this topic…

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Today’s entry will be a compendium of articles and how-to’s that relate to our iTeach seminar topics.

• GarageBand: This site from Apple has a set of lesson plans in PDF format for using Garageband with elementary and middle school students, some integrated with other software such as iMovie.
• iPhoto to Flickr: FlickrExport is a wonderful (but not free) iPhoto plugin that allows you to upload photos from your iPhoto albums directly into Flickr. Photos can be tagged, titled, and even put into sets at the time they are uploaded.
• Keyboarding: Typing skills are critical in a ubiquitous computing environment. Here is an on-line keyboarding tutorial.
• Podcasting in Schools: Need a few reasons to create podcasts for your school? Here is a short list...

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One of the interesting things I have been exploring since the iTeach seminar is the way that Web 2.0 (social networking) sites work together across different types of data. Here is an example of that. I was investigating my Del.icio.us bookmarks, basically surfing around to see what new elements might have popped up in my subscriptions. I happened on this web site that explained how to embed Flickr slide shows into a web page or blog. I decided to give it a try and the first results are shown in the small slide show below–a group of my photos that were saved in Flickr as a “set” and are now being viewed in my blog. I didn’t have to do much at all, and the results are pretty impressive.

The mind reels at the possibilities of using this with students. It would be excellent for any place-based assignment (community profile, field visits), storytelling, or portfolios. It would also make an interesting medium for a “how to” document. You can create your slide shows (in Flickr) from your own photos or from other photos that you have tagged or linked to. I’m definitely going to be using this with my ED 429 students this fall.

Experiment with the slide show below. You can pause the show, change the timing, and view individual pictures separately, enlarging them if you wish. I can’t wait…

Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.

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