asgn_4

=Assignment #4:= wikispaces account information: http://gravenpj.wikispaces.com/

25 Tools for Online Engagement and Communication Part 5: Engagement and Communication

Blogs and Wikis! – The article begins with a brief look at blogs. Blogs are nothing new, we’ve been doing the old paper/pencil version for hundreds of years, but they have more and more popular as people want to share their thoughts and ideas to the wide audience. Signing up for a blog should be easy for the average internet user. There are plenty of few sites out there for one to setup their very own blog and get the ball rolling in using blogs as a classroom tool. The article continues to look at blogs as a teaching tool and discusses student use and evaluation of their use (in what seems to be more of a higher ed. example – possibly at the HS level too). Blogs can be complex and reduce the amount of face to face interactions – and it does come with some drawbacks; especially if you don’t have any experienced bloggers in the group. In short – you can’t hit the “homerun” with blogging in your first attempt. It takes time and energy to make it work within the educational setting at any level. Wikis have taken a little more time to develop but takes blogging to another level. Unlike blogs (personal), Wikis are collaborative and ever changing not by one but by the possibility of many collaboratively editing a website. For students, blogs are easier to understand the concept behind. Wikis with its ever changing group editing of information – issues can develop from students not being open in editing someone else’s work to mechanics of editing within a wiki. Blogs are personal, easy to use, and you control your own world. The Wiki adds a worldwide collaborative edge to a “blog-like” atmosphere. **Blog and Wiki REVIEW:** Blogs:
 * [] - Teachers Love SMART Boards is a blog that provides notebook lessons, tips/tricks, web resources and tutorials. The blog is updated every 7-14 days, however; the last post was on May 19, 2001. The blog has a number of categories to search through. The blog shows the user screen shots and video as two ways to enhance the blog. The blog contains an archive as well as search feature to search using key words.


 * [] - A resource blog with a clean and inviting open page. Blog entries have a unique and creative means of showing a screen shot. The blog has a search tool that helps located resources faster and links to the authors own notebook files.

Wikis:
 * [] - SMART Boards in the Classroom is a blog that has wide selection of categories to look over (it’s a limiting factor as it tends to focus its resources to the masses – I’d prefer a blog that has a more narrow focus). The blog has short descriptions of the resource with screenshots. Other posts contain video clips. The blog has been around for some time and heavily posted from 2007 to early 2009. With the increase technology use in the classroom, it’s surprising to see the lack of posts over the last two (2) years.
 * http://smartboardwiki.wikispaces.com/ - I had reviewed this wiki earlier and still have the same feelings towards the level of content provided on the site. The goal of the site is to amass resources in one spot and to showcase high quality programs to use with interactive technologies. The wiki provides answers to common interactive whiteboard hardware with easy to understand answers. The miscellaneous area of the site has a wide range of enhancements that can be used. The wiki goes as far as to have a proficiency checklist to allow individuals to learn where their weak areas are when it comes to interactive whiteboards.


 * [] ! – SMART Board Resources is a WIKI that provides users six (6) different pages of resources from general to SMART Response Clickers. The WIKI is updated regularly and has a search tool to located resources quickly. I searched “Earth Science” and was quickly given 13 sites from an interactive soil analysis to earth science simulations. A nice feature of the WIKI is its use of tags to help guide the search for resources.


 * http://melissaenderle.wikispaces.com/SmartBoard - A simple wiki with lots of links and ideas presented for the user to evaluate. It’s all on one page structure is simple, but also frustrating as one needs to filter through the material to find any possible resources that one could use. The ideas are realistic and links to blogs carries the conversation to other websites (it’s nice to see that they are looking to link to others and their collection of resources). The wiki covers more than just the Smart board – you can also search subject areas, software, tools, and Web 2.0 resources.

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