More Fun with Wikis

Collaboration, community and the creation of knowledge as a group are three fundamental elements of wikis that help foster their success.  As this week went by, I had the chance to explore and discover on my own why wikis in education are becoming increasingly popular.  Students are able to contribute their knowledge and understanding on a larger scale and to a larger audience, which can be a really neat experience for them.  One way to introduce students to the world of collaboration is by using a site like Wikispaces to create book reviews.  Wikispaces allows students to be more creative with their work.  Instead of typing out and posting a regular text opinion, students can use videos, photos and links to supporting sites, for instance a link to the author's Web page, to bring more color and life to the book they are reviewing.  The audience can be exposed to more information, and can therefore decide if a certain book really meets their interest. 

During my research I also came across an idea that I think can help enhance the use of Wikipedia in the classroom.  This idea is WikiTube.  WikiTube is a Chrome extension that adds YouTube videos to Wikipedia pages.  Once you install it, anytime you open a Wikipedia page videos will automatically be embedded at the top of each site.  Even though teachers are hesitant in allowing their students to use the data they find on Wikipedia for their projects or reports, WikiTube offers quick and easy access to videos that may be useful to show during class presentations.  A step is essentially eliminated for students. They no longer have to search for an appropriate and interesting video because WikiTube picks out the most relevant videos available on YouTube for them.

As I mentioned earlier this week, there is more to wikis than one may think.  The goal is to educate ourselves better about its possibilities so that we may use them with our students. 

The Potential and Reality of Wikis in the Classroom

Wikis are the most misunderstood tool of Web 2.0.  Part of the reason why I think that is true is because people are misinformed and fail to see the potential of wikis.  Educators especially have a hard time deciphering their purpose.  Take for instance my current situation.  I'm in an education technology class learning about how Wikipedia works and how to incorporate wikis in the classroom, yet in another class the mere utter of the word "Wikipedia" invokes a 10 minute lecture of legitimate sites of information by my professor.  I understand the importance of research and being able to discover sources on my own, but that doesn't mean Wikipedia can't be a point for inspiration.  There is more to it than one may expect. 

The neutrality and versatility of wikis is what makes it a unique collaborative tool.  As Will Richardson points out in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcast and other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom, more often than not people making contributions to a wiki page want the information to be right.  There is no personal agenda.  There is just collaboration towards the storage of knowledge in a timely fashion, and in an educational setting, wikis have the potential to change the system.  As Richardson goes on to illustrate, an entire high school curriculum can be organized within an wiki to ease communication amongst teachers or students from all over the world can connect and work on projects together, such as the case with "Flat Classroom."  Even textbook companies are beginning to fear what wikis can do as they become more reliable sources.  When applied in the classroom, wikis become part of the learning environment and not just a site to look up information.

However, the reality is that while many teachers are beginning to seize the benefits of collaboration and negotiation skills that wikis offer students, the playing field is not level.  In a recent study of wiki usage in K-12 classrooms, Justin Reich, Richard Murnane and John Willett discovered that even in the Web 2.0 era a digital divide continues to exists, and students attending more affluent schools are the ones reaping most of the benefits.  This isn't to say that teachers in schools serving low income families don't try to incorporate wikis or other Web 2.0 tools, they are just not as successful and terminate their development.  As Reich, Murnane and Willet demonstrate, teachers lack support in using technology for innovation.  These tools are simply being used to make everyday routines easier to complete.

While some wiki pages may be more innovative than the others, we cannot loose sight of the impact they bring because the ability for students to develop 21st-century skills is highly present.  

Google Forms

Google Drive also gives users the ability to create surveys using Google Forms.  Below is an example of one that I created for a journalism class. 

Writing Apps for Students

I am a writer.  By no means a great (or good) one, but a writer of some sort.  How do I know this?  Well, I spent 4 years of my life pursuing a journalism degree, and then I spent the next 4 years running away from it.  Yet somehow I always found my way to writing.  No matter where I lived or where I worked, I would always be writing something.  I couldn't escape it and I am very glad I didn't. 

Writing is an essential tool for life.  No matter what career path you pursue, to a certain degree, writing is going to be involved.  It is by no means an easy task (the more you practice the better you become), there are times when it can be extremely difficult, but when an idea comes to mind or when you are researching a topic of interest the process can be a little easier.  Getting students motivated about writing can also be quite the challenge.  For them, there are hundreds of better things to be doing than thinking about the day's journal entry.  So the question is, how can I get students to be as excited about writing as I am?  While there is no concrete answer, using apps and tools available online could spark their interest. 

Free Tech for Teachers, recently posted a list of sources dedicated to writing prompts.  One particular iPad app that caught my attention was Things to Think About, which offers writing ideas created by 2nd-5th grade students.  Instead of reading the topic of the day from the board, students can listen to a recording and view a picture using the app.  This new component could make writing more appealing to students.  A journal assignment becomes more than just a requirement by the teacher, it becomes a new way to experience the writing process.  In addition, using a visual dictionary/thesaurus such as Snappy Words, which creates webs of words, may help expand students' vocabulary skills, especially if they tend to use words and phrases repeatedly.  Using this tool with their weekly list of vocabulary words can be much more helpful than writing them out 10 times for memorization.

No matter what grade level, writing is a way to engage with the world.  The tools and ideas are out there for students to flourish as writers.  There is no better privilege than that. 

Just Google It

Google. It's like magic.  You type something in and abracadabra, an abundant list of resources appear as if out of thin air.  But beyond its search engine capabilities, are middle and high school students taking advantage of the many other services Google offers?  I'm sure many have Gmail and YouTube accounts and even more use Google+, but more than likely these tools are being used in a social manner rather than an educational one.  One aspect of Google that perhaps gets overlooked by students, and offers many educational benefits, is Google Drive. 

Google Drive is a service that lets you store and create files in a safe, secure and sharable way wherever you install it.  In other words, Google Drive is a backup place to store important information in case anything ever happens to your computer or tablet, and unlike other online storage sites it lets you create documents, presentations and spreadsheets, similar to Microsoft Office, for personal use or to share with others. 

The most simplest and basic way students can use Google Drive to their advantage is by the fact that it eliminates USB flash drives for them.  We've all had moments of panic 5 minutes before class on the day we're presenting a project and we can't find our flash drive anywhere, it's nerve wrecking.  By saving schoolwork onto Google Drive, students take away the stress and worry of having to keep their flash drive safe throughout the day because everything is already stored and access to it is just as easy.  Teachers also won't have to hear "I forgot it at home" or "I saved the wrong copy" when their students are getting ready to present.    

Google Drive is also a great writing and editing tool for students that work on the high school newspaper.  By writing drafts using Google Docs, students can share their work with teachers and student editors for review before publication.  It's easy to make comments and corrections, and once students are done with their final drafts the page editor can have immediate access to all the stories to begin the layout process.  No emails have to be sent back and forth and there is no confusion about which draft to publish. 

Google Docs is also a great way for English teachers to get their students to write collaborative stories.  The teacher can start by picking a certain topic or central theme that has been discussed in class and begin the story by creating a new document with an introduction.  Each student thereafter reads what has been written and adds a paragraph.  What might usually be an in class exercise where students pass around a piece of paper to write a story, can become a more elaborate project for students to practice their writing skills and use their creativity.

Whether it's for personal school organization or for student use, Google Drive is easy and quick to learn and in my opinion the essential tool for teachers to use.       

Student-Teacher Interactions

I recently read a post by Eric Patnoudes on Edudemic that explains how technology is causing student-teacher interactions to evolve.  His commentary about teachers no longer being the "experts" in the classroom is very true.  Before Smartphones, tablets and laptops students took what teachers said to be factual.  Today, they can easily do a Google search to find whatever they need in probably less time than opening a book.  We live in a world where standardized test have implanted themselves within the school curriculum, and feeding student endless facts no longer makes an impact.  As Patnoudes points out, "it is no longer about what students know, it's about what they do with what they know and how they do it."  Students need to question the answers they find in order to think critically, in order to create something new.  So how do we get them to think outside the box? Well, by using the very same technologies they use on a daily basis.

Teachers no longer have to rely on textbooks as the only resource for lessons.  A social media app like Pinterest, as well as reading educational blogs, can inspire new ideas for teachers to expand the classroom.  For instance, this new Into the Outdoors lesson site presents an opportunity for teaching and learning with videos.  In addition, students get the chance to learn outside.  I think that's an element of teaching that also gets overlooked, and today's technology makes it simpler to accomplish.  Students can investigate the outdoors and take notes and pictures on what they find with a tablet.  The learning experience is different.  In order to change student-teacher interactions into something more, teachers can't be afraid to use the plethora of tools available through new technologies.  The entire classroom doesn't have to change.  I think the key is to start small in order to see success.    

Pintrest and Evernote: 3 ways they work in the classroom

I have zero experience using Pinterest and Evernote.  To be honest, I knew nothing about Evernote until this week, and as for Pinterest, it never really caught my attention.  Some days I feel like I can barely stay up to date with my Facebook and Twitter accounts that using another social media app feels a bit much.  However, after this week's readings and instructional videos, not only did my opinion about Pinterest change, but I found both applications to be very useful for educators.

Pinterest is the cool "new" app everyone is using. If you're like me and had only ever heard of it, Pinterest is basically a virtual pin board where you can pin pictures or videos you like from the Web and organize them in various ways.  Think of the corkboards you might see hanging on a wall in a college dorm room with all sorts of random stuff displayed, but not as messy.  Within the last 2 years the number of new users has grown exponentially, and one group of professionals that is really taking advantage of what Pinterest has to offer are educators.  For teachers, this is a great collaborative tool. Not only can you can share ideas with colleagues from all over the world, but it's also a great way to find lessons, ideas for the classroom organization or better ways to manage class time.  So how can you put Pintrest to use in your classroom? Well, if you do a board search on education alone, hundreds of ideas pop up, but these are three that I think are useful:
                 

• Visuals for presentations: Pinterest can be a great way for students to create an online poster as their visual element for a presentation, and I think middle school history teachers can use it to raise student interest levels.  For example, if students in a Texas History class are doing presentations on historical figures, instead of a typical PowerPoint presentation students can create a board and pin online content and images of the person they're covering.  No offense to anyone that enjoys using PowerPoint, but they do get a bit bland after a while.  This way not only do you incorporate an aspect of technology that students think is "cool," but it also offers them a way to be a little more creative with their topic.
• General class board: Teachers can create one board for the entire class where students can pin interesting material they find at home relating to that class.  For instance, high school students in an English literature course working on a unit on Shakespeare can pin information they find relevant and share it with all their classmates.  Teachers can then set up a day once a week, or once a month, for a group discussion where students can explain what they posted, and perhaps a new lesson can arise for later use during the school year.
• College Planning: Teachers and students are not the only ones that can incorporate Pinterest in schools. High school counselors can also use the app with junior and senior students for college planning.  Students can create a different board for every university they are interested in applying to and pin important information such as application deadlines, dates for student visits, costs, links to virtual tours and campus pictures.  This way all the information they find can be stored in one place and can easily be accessed to compare and contrast.  

Evernote, on the other hand, while a little more complex than Pinterest, offers just as many benefits but in notebook form.  Aside from storing photos and videos, you can create notes, store tweets, save emails, record your voice and tag items.  As I was watching the instructional video required for class, I couldn't help but think how great it would've been to us this app to organize paperwork when I worked for a construction company.  In essence, Evernote is organization at its best.  While teachers will find great use to organize different subjects, especially if they teach more than one grade level, students, I think, will benefit more.  Just like Pinterest if you search for way to incorporate Evernote into the classroom the suggestions are endless, but these are three ways I think are very practical:

• Weekly agenda: At any grade level, students loose track of assignments if they don't write them down. Even if they do, books can sometimes get lost.  With Evernote, teachers can set up a weekly schedule detailing assignments and due dates so students can keep track of the schedule from their computer or tablet.  In addition, reminders for deadlines can be set a day in advance so student don't forget when to turn something in. 
• Labeling images: One great thing about Evernote is how other apps can be integrated to work with it.  One that I recently read about is Skitch, which lets you label images.  Middle and high school science/biology teachers can use this in class, for example, to present diagrams or images when going over lessons on atoms or cells.  Instead of handing out worksheets that the students manually label and later use to study for a test, Skitch can help with labeling techniques and Evernote can store the image in a science notebook for future reference.
• Recording audio for a speech: Students taking a high school speech class (or students who participate in speech and debate) will find the audio recording option to be helpful.  Instead of asking a friend or parent to listen and critique their speech, students can record themselves and figure out what changes need to be made.  

These examples are just a few ways that Pinterest and Evernote can be incorporated into the classroom.  The more we learn about them and the more we incorporate them in school, the more students can continue to grow in the 21st century.      

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs

Easy to create, millions of people have taken advantage of the collaborative space blogs offer, and have become by far the most popular adapted tool of Web 2.0.  Anything you can think of—dogs, cars, shoes, sports—and there is probably several thousand blog sites dedicated to whatever meets your interest.  While some might look at blogs as simply a new way of journaling or just another place where photos can be posted or links to interesting videos can be watched, I like to think they all serve some sort of purpose no matter how simple or elaborate they may be.  However, in education, these sites are not social tools, they are learning tools.   

Blogs have expanded the walls of the classroom.  Communication between student and teacher doesn’t have to end at 3 p.m. when the bell rings.  If, for instance, I was teaching a high school multimedia journalism class and forgot to mention an assignment or an upcoming deadline, a blog like this would come in handy.  Using a blog as a classroom portal gives students immediate access to course material, assignments or changes to the schedule at any moment.  There are no unexpected surprises to the course curriculum because everything can be kept track of online.  

Teachers can also assign students to create their own blog to use as an online portfolio for posting different assignments throughout the year (RSS makes this process a lot simpler when teachers, or students, want to view others work because instead of going to 20 or more different blogs sites, everything can be automatically updated in one place).  Not only does this provide a different avenue to share ideas and receive feedback within the class, but it also allows others to become involved in the learning process.  Lets go back to the multimedia journalism class I mentioned above, and let’s say my class is working on a unit on photojournalism.  Their assignment for the week is to take pictures at various school events and write cutlines (photo captions) for 10 photos.  Because of the ease of digital cameras, students can load their picture to their computers, pick the 10 they like, write their cutlines and post their assignment to their blog.  Students can then be able to comment and critique each other’s work, or even a photo editor from the local newspaper can be invited to offer expert insight.  

Of course, not all of the assignments of a multimedia course are as clear-cut as the previous example, and one of the great values of blogging in a journalism course is that it provides students with a place to work on their editorial skills in a critical way. Yes, editorial pieces allow a writer to voice their own opinion, but you can’t just pontificate about an issue, you need to provide a critical perspective.  Blogs have somewhat facilitated that process because they have inadvertently created a new style of writing and a new way of thinking.  Whether it’s for a journalism class or an English literature course, when students are given an assignment for a new blog post they aren’t just reading words to find an answer anymore, they’re looking for pieces of information to make connections and synthesize ideas for their post.  In essence, they are developing the proper critical skills needed to succeed in a higher education setting.    

Using blogs as an educational tool can add a whole new dimension to the classroom, but it’s really up to each teacher to determine how best they work for their particular class.  I think the key is to make sure blogs are utilized either daily or biweekly.  You can’t just set up blogs site and half way through the semester stop using them.  The more you work with them the better the classroom experience can become.

Welcome

Hello all and welcome to Web 2.0 and The Classroom.  As part of an eduction technology course I'm enrolled in this semester, I've created this blog dedicated to ideas and/or commentary about the tools and applications available to teachers for use with their students.  Throughout the next few weeks I will be sharing my thoughts about what I am learning and hopefully getting feedback to further evolve some of the ideas I may have.