Blogs and Wikis in Education

One interesting way that blogs and wikis are being used in classrooms is through posting videos on the blog or wikis. I found videos of children working together on a project as well as a video of students performing at an assembly. Another way blogs and wikis are being used in the classroom is through creating a space just for students in a specific subject. For example, there are wikis for students who are in economics who might need help or if teachers wanted to visit the site and put in their thoughts or corrections, they can do that on this wiki. Another interesting way blogs and wikis are being used in the classroom is that they are being used as announcement pages instead of sending kids home with notes on upcoming events. The announcements are posted on the teachers’ blog and therefore, the parents can be sure that they are getting the announcements on time.

 

A teacher could use an RSS reader in the classroom, that way they wouldn’t have to rely on the parents to navigate through all their class pages. For example, if a teacher had a blog, a wiki and a teacherweb, they could show the parents how to set up an RSS reader so the parents would get the updates or announcements sent to them instead of trying to navigate through all the pages the teacher has. You could also use an RSS reader for students use. If a teacher did have all the online resources, as described above, the students could use an aggregator to get the information sent to them instead of searching and wasting time navigating through all the teachers different pages.

 

Some of the cons of using blogs and wikis in education is that there is always the question of whether each student has access to a computer. If each student does not have access to a computer it puts them at a disadvantage because they won’t be getting the same information as the other students. Another con of using blogs and wikis in education is that if you don’t have a password to access the site people could get onto it and put false information on there. A pro to using blogs and wikis in education is that it allows students and parents to get information outside the classroom. This would provide teachers a better way to communicate with parents and get announcements out, assuming families had access to a computer. Another pro to using blogs and wikis in education is that if a teacher had a wiki page that was a place for students to go after school to look over what was learned that day, it would allow the student to clear up some questions on subjects they may have been confused about.