Week 3 - Exploring blogs, wikis and websites

As we zoom into the third week of e-learning it's time to look at the first group of digital tools - Blogs, wikis and websites!

Digital Tool Number 1 - Blogs

I absolutely LOVED setting up my e-learning blog at the beginning of this course, as it allowed me to design a writing space that reflects my own personality. It was the first time I have ever created a personal blog, and I found great satisfaction in working through the process of setting it up (even though it took me a whole day!). For me, setting up a blog was actually an exercise in critical thinking, as I hit a number of walls along the way which I had to problem solve my way through. There is truly nothing Google doesn't seem to know though, and with a quick search I was able to find a plethora of tutorials and information about how to fix my problems! Now that's connectivism in action!

But how can blogs be incorporated into the classroom setting? And what are the benefits and limitations of this digital tool?

I have completed a PMI for the use of blogs below to help answer these questions.

Plus:

Images, videos and links to other websites can be easily embedded into blogs

Blogs are able to be accessed from any computer and also via mobile devices

Blogs are an online way of storing information and any information posted on a blog cannot be lost as students' work is saved when drafting posts and once posts are published.

Both classroom and global collaboration can be facilitated through blogs, with students being able to comment on their peers' work.

Through commenting on others' work, students are learning how to provide meaningful, constructive feedback

Teachers can monitor students work and understanding of content easily

Provides a place for students to reflect on their learning (gives teachers a deeper insight into their students' thinking)

Engages students in writing through allowing them to create their own personalised writing space (can decorate with their own backgound, colour schemes, fonts, images etc. - just a little more interesting than a paper notebook!)

Teachers can apply privacy settings to students' blogs to ensure they are not able to be viewed by the public, only the rest of the class

Blogger contains an in-built spell checker which helps students to correct any spelling mistakes in their posts

Minus:

Students may not use their blog appropriately - they may post comments that are completely off-task or not constructive

Some students may not feel comfortable to share their ideas on a blog because other people can see them (self-conscious)

Students with limited experience with working with the internet and ICT may find it very difficult to set up their blog (have difficulty navigating around the blog and utilising the tools required to create a blog)

Students may use blogging as a tool for bullying (instead of providing constructive comments on other students' posts they may give put-downs)

Students may not be able to work on their blog from home if they cannot access the internet

Interesting:

There are a number of engaging ways that blogs can be used to enhance classroom learning. See one of my blog posts here for an example of how blogs can be used to facilitate English learning in Year 7 (the example is featured at the end of the blog post).

One of the other e-learning bloggers I follow, Jessie, posted about 'Edublogs' as part of her exploration on blogs in the classroom. I decided to check out what an Edublog was for myself, and the results were really exciting! Edublogs is a free blogging tool that can be used by teachers and students to reflect on classroom learning. Here is an example of an Edublog created by a year 5/6 class in Canada - 'Huzzah!'.

Be sure to look at all the students' blogs located on the right hand side of the class blog homepage - their posts are very entertaining!

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Digital Tool Number 2 - Wikis

I have used wikis on a number of occasions throughout my study at university, predominantly as a collaborative tool for group work assignments. Please check out my thoughts on wikis here.

Wikis enable a group of people to upload information (text, videos, images, tables etc.) so that information can then be used by everyone in the group to complete a task. Here is an example of two group wikis I recently participated in as part of my university courses - LM4 Wiki and Numeracy Wiki.

But how can wikis be incorporated into the classroom setting? And what are the benefits and limitations of this digital tool?

Here is a PMI for the use of wikis in the classroom.

Plus:

Allows students to share ideas and opinions with their peers (collaboration)

Can be used for both personal work and group work

Provides an online storage system for information that is saved and cannot be lost

Videos, images and links to other websites can be uploaded into the wiki

Students can edit their group members' work in the wiki (great facility for proofreading assignment tasks)

Teachers can gain access to the wiki and post comments about how students are progressing with a task

Teachers can also monitor whether group members are contributing evenly to a task via the 'History' page

Wikis can continually be added to over long periods of time - does not 'time out'

Minus:

If students are editing a wiki at the same time they face the issue of writing over/deleting the other person's work

As with blogs, students may use a wiki as a podium for inappropriate commenting (off task posts and put-down comments on others' work)

If the privacy settings are not changed, students' work can be viewed by anyone from the public (breach of copyright/child safety laws)

If the task being completed using the wiki is not scaffolded appropriately (eg: contains a series of focus questions to answer or headings to keep students work on task) then it can result in learners just uploading a lot of information with no real direction as to how to use it effectively

Wikis contain limited formatting options which can result in them being visually unappealing to read (limited font styles, background design options and layout options)

Interesting:

Wikis can not only used as a way of organising information for personal assessment tasks and collaborating for group assessment tasks, but they can used for everyday learning in the classroom. One really great example that I found was via a blog link my fellow blogger Tiana posted called '50 Ways to Use Wikis'. For learning in the KLA of Maths, teachers can create a wiki where they regularly provide problem solving questions for groups of children to solve together. This is such a simple idea, yet it effectively engages learners in using technology, collaborating with others and not to mention, is saving trees by teachers not having to print out the questions on paper! Winner!

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Digital Tool Number 3 - Websites

I have had a little bit of experience with creating websites as I was required to create a webquest through Weebly as part of a SOSE course I undertook last year. Feel free to check it out here - Let's Get Energy Smart. I was quite happy with the end result! :)

Initially though, I remember looking at the task sheet for this SOSE assignment and nearly dying at the thought of having to create a website! I mean, aren't websites just heaps of in-depth codes in cyberspace that somehow fit together to make a webpage appear on our screens? I thought it was going to be mission impossible.

Thankfully, we were introduced to the online website creator called 'Weebly'. Weebly is a very easy program to use, because it takes away the need for the creator to know about complex web programming/coding (it does that part for you! Yay!!!) and provides simple tools that help you add in the elements of an effective website (webpages, tabs, images, videos, links to Word documents and webpages etc.). With the majority of our students today being fluent in the language of technology, I believe they could have a working website completed in a matter of hours. As with any digital tool however, there are always limitations in its use. Please see the PMI I have created below for the benefits, limitations and interesting points about using Weebly websites in the classroom.

Plus:

Weebly is an easy-to-use program with simple tools for helping teachers and learners to build websites

Does not require students to know about or use complex web programming or coding

Images, videos, links to websites and Word documents can be uploaded to the students' websites

Students are able to exercise their creativity through choosing layouts, background designs, font styles and colours etc. for their websites (this helps make learning personal and engaging for individual students)

Websites can allow teachers to organise learning tasks for students of different levels (teachers design separate pages of work for each learning level within the main website screen. Students can then access their work via tabs on the main screen)

Provides an online storage facility for students work

Supports students in engaging with multi-modal texts

Minus:

Once students have published their website, anyone can view it. This means student safety could be jeopardised, and thus teachers need to ensure their learners are not providing any personal details on their websites

Some school computers may not allow students to access the Weebly website creator (security settings/firewalls)

Websites do not allow teachers to freely access their students work to provide feedback on their progress

Collaboration with others is not facilitated through Weebly websites as their is no way for students to leave comments on their peers' work

Interesting:

A class Weebly website could be set up so that students who were away could still access that day's work. The classroom teacher could upload what tasks they were going to be completing for the day in the morning so students could access it from home if they needed to. Furthermore, having a record of every day's schoolwork on the class website would enable students to go back and revisit any information they didn't fully understand.

Weebly is a fantastic digital tool to help novices find their way around creating a website. Looking a little further into website design though, I came across another free website builder called 'Wix'. Whilst I haven't looked deeply enough into whether it would be appropriate for students to use from a security perspective, it appears to be able to incorporate some more advanced ICT components than that of Weebly (eg: Flash Player). If the security of a Wix website is in fact sound, I think this could be a great tool for students in upper primary to use for projects once they have mastered Weebly.

Overall, blogs, wikis and websites can be seen as fantastic digital tools for use in the classroom. They encourage the collaboration of ideas, promote the use of higher order thinking skills through allowing students to critically reflect on the work of others and solve problems and they engage students in tasks through letting them creatively build their own online learning environment.

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Image Acknowledgement:

Google it - http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2009/03/23/google-it/

Wikispaces - http://mrmcdanielsteacherpage.wikispaces.com/Collaboration

Kids Around Computer - http://www.cenet.catholic.edu.au/cenet/index.php/ournews/ournewstop/18-social-media-a-video-in-action

Wix - http://tech4teacher.wordpress.com/tag/wix/