|
|
Post by joseantoniook on Dec 16, 2010 11:24:39 GMT
1. From your experience with our wiki in BaW11, which features of wikis described in the text The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities, by Peter Duffy & Axel Bruns eprints.qut.edu.au/5398/1/5398.pdf have you noticed so far? 2. Do you see yourself using wikis with your students? How? |
|
|
|
Post by rotmanal on Jan 17, 2011 12:54:44 GMT
Hi! I´ve read the article about wikis, blogs and RSS. Although I have been using blogs for such a long time I still don´t know how to deal with them, I mean how to keep them updated because of the little amount of time I have for doing so. What I tend to do is to create a blog, get enthusiastic, involve my students and after some weeks neither me nor my students go on working with it. A pity! I know I should do something to have a continuity. As regards wikis I'm just learning about them (One step at a time) and although I´ve read the article I still can't see what RSS is. Maybe because I haven't seen enough or I see them everyday and still can't understand. Bye, Ale.
|
|
|
|
Post by nadinne on Jan 17, 2011 16:56:53 GMT
Hello! I have read the article provided and it really is interesting. To be very short, I will answer the two questions: 1. So far I have noticed that the BaW 2011 wiki is created by one user, while the others (including myself) can edit its content. It is a linked network of resources of different types which can be accessed very easily. There is a relationship between pages and there is a cross-linking. 2. From my experience I can tell you that so far I have used a wiki - it can be accessed here: my-english-portfolio.wikispaces.com/. It is based on one of the textbooks I use with my students - English Portfolio, OUP. This wiki I created last year proves to be extremely helpful for my students and it made my work easier, as I can post everything I need online. All the best, Nadina |
|
|
|
Post by joseantoniook on Jan 17, 2011 23:38:36 GMT
Hello Ale, Nice to read your comments. Yes, sometimes we get frustrated when blogs go innactive for a long time.  One way of keeping them alive would probably continue blogging with other groups. It is true that we generally create a blog for a specific group and once we leave that group, the blog dies. I also have my share of innactive blogs. I browse them once in while and miss the students I used to have and marvel and the good job we did.  About RSS, it is a format for updating content (is is generally the orange buttom you see in some sites). Google Reader uses RSS. Let´s suppose you like a blog, RSS is what permits you to know everytime there is a new post without necessarily visiting the blog´s page. Although it is covered in the text. we won´t be covering this in BaW due to time constraints. As you can see, Week 2 is a busy one already.  Cheers All the best |
|
|
|
Post by joseantoniook on Jan 17, 2011 23:45:01 GMT
Hi Nadinne,
I have visited your wiki and it is really nice. I saw that you created pages with videos and some interesting links. I like wikispaces. I sometimes use wikis my students as a source for extra resources.
At the school I work in, we use a wiki to share resources among teachers. Some of my colleagues also use wikis with their students.
The sharing nature of wikis sure makes work a lot easier
|
|
|
|
Post by eeoprr on Jan 18, 2011 13:26:52 GMT
Hi Nadinne,
Thanks for posting your wiki. I like all the online choices we have for communication. Before I introduced a new technology in the classroom, I think a survey is necessary. I would like to know what technology the students are using outside of the classroom and what tools they would like to learn. I think new material would work best in familiar technology, while reviewed material could be used with new material.
|
|
|
|
Post by mariabossa on Jan 18, 2011 19:05:28 GMT
Hi to you all! After reading the article we are discussin here, I still have the doubt: "how different is a blog from a social network like FBCK?" In both I can publish, write, upload, link and so forth! Though I have a blog (http://mariabossa.blogspot.com/) I don't use it cause I don't see the usage and I cannot get acquitanted with it. Also I really don't understand the difference between RSS and newsletlers. We get the info in our mail so... I don't see the point. I'm really sorry if my questions are too silly but... doubts are doubts!! I don't have a wiki page so I still cannot make comments on that. I'll be more than happy if someone can help! Smiles, Maria  |
|
|
|
Post by cioccas on Jan 18, 2011 23:59:18 GMT
Hi Nadina This is a great example of using wikis with students! It really extends what is in your textbook and I'm sure would encourage some students to look even further afield. I've used wikis (Wikispaces and PBwiki) to collaborate with other students in my own uni study, but these were private spaces that we set up ourselves to facilitate communication and collaboration. I haven't used them in my teaching as yet. One thing I know other teachers find them useful for is to be able to check on individual student contributions in group projects - you can do that through the 'History' function - check the BaW wiki 'Page History' button for an example (think you have to logged in to see it). The only reservation I have about this is that the students might want to get together physically to work on their project and update the wiki while they are talking together and the 'history' would only show for whoever is logged in, not capture the collaborative effort. What do others think about this? Anyone have any expereince of this? Lesley |
|
|
|
Post by cioccas on Jan 19, 2011 0:07:48 GMT
I use RSS to manage the volume of blogs and sites I try to keep up with. I have used Pageflakes and Netvibes as my reader/organiser - both very similar.
As it says in the article, it is also a good way to follow all student blogs in one place,so I would certainly use this if I ever use student blogs.
We have just started using Moodle at my institution and that allows RSS feeds so will be exploring that for my courses. I don't like the blogging facility in the current version of Moodle much, but it does automatically syndicate the blogs for all students in a course, so has some benefits.
Lesley
|
|
|
|
Post by sophiac1 on Jan 19, 2011 10:22:35 GMT
In the suggested reading article a wiki is a "web site which allows a user to add content",but also this content can be edited by other too. Up to now, that is the main feature I have explored in baw11. By reading the article, I still have some doubts regading the various uses of blogs and wikis, and their differences. Some things need to be explored further. My personal liking lies on bloggings and this what I am intending to incorporate in my teaching daily routine.
|
|
|
|
Post by juandomingo on Jan 19, 2011 14:50:34 GMT
Hi Everybody,
here I post my comments after having read the recommended articles.
DEFINITIONS:
BLOG: a blog is a webpage which can be used for different purposes such as a place to share information about singers or where a teacher can store different resources or analyze them with other teachers from the city or other parts of the world. As it is easy to be used and there are many users who take advantage of this web 2.0 Tool. It is a good tool which would provide a place where many users could interact with each other and create through these interactions knowledge. This process of interaction would only take place if the owner of the Blog is intelligent enough to feed the blog and attract other users to interact.
I consider that a Blog would be an excellent tool and would give users the opportunity to learn about a topic with others and this interaction with other people would create an atmosphere where learning can take place. I think that teachers should take advantage of this tool, which would give the students the possibility to learn from each other and build knowledge. This will take place only if the teacher plans the class in a meaningful and careful way.
WIKI: a wiki is a webpage where a person in companion of others (who have been previously invited to the wiki and who are not physically present at the same place) can plan a party, write an essay, write out a project or even write a Book. There are different types of Wikis offered, at some, one can write at the same time with other participants, many hands at the same time in one text, and there are others where one person at a time is allowed to type. Despite these differences many hands can work on each piece of work and the process of that writing can be seen in the history of the wiki.
A wiki is an excellent tool which can benefit collaborative learning and work. But the wiki itself would not do anything unless teachers plan their classes in a proper way. There is another advantage which would be of great help for shy students. There are many shy students who barely participate in their classes; if this tool is used, it could give those ones the possibility to express themselves and be part of the group. The same occurs with us, teachers, when we have meetings, the ones who are shy are overwhelmed by teachers who start talking and use such a rich vocabulary that we prefer to stay in silence. I guess this tool would be of great help for students and for teachers the and give them the possibility to be heard.
Social Networks: is a webpage which offers a user the possibility to contact with friends, relatives or even with people with same interests. It is the users who give life to this social net by interacting with different members of the Social Network. One example of a Social Network is Facebook where a user can show what he/she does during the day, share information about singers, create a group according to tastes, even politicians in Argentina have made use Facebook to present themselves as candidates for the coming elections. Last year students from a big city decided to be absent from school via Facebook, so none of the students attended school that day, but gathered at the square of the city and had a nice time together. To sum up, it can be said that a social network is a group of webpages which are connected each other and whose owners decide who can be part of his/her group and from that moment on they start interacting and creating a social network by sharing ideas, interesting and showing what he/she has done during the day, holidays or even at a school day.
A blog, a wiki and a Social Network have similarities as well as differences. One of the similarities is that all of them facilitate interaction among different people who might be interested in similar topics. The differences that I have found in them are the following. A blog can be a place where different opinions can be shared and as a result each member can learn from each other. There is feedback to the different postings. While a Wiki is a page where the whole group with a thousand of ideas conveying create a final production, a social network offers a variety of tools which allows the owner of the webpage to share ideas, his/her life, it has a more social side where as the other two have a content orientation. Anyway Facebook gives the possibility to create groups and learn from each other, but that would depend on the use people give to it. The majority of the adolescents just use it to talk about school, show pictures of their outings at night.
Regards,
Juan Domingo
|
|
sonia
New Member
Posts: 3
|
Post by sonia on Jan 20, 2011 9:00:10 GMT
I created a wiki on Wikispaces when a friend of mine started teaching French in an American high school. My students were very excited to have ePals. A wiki was the best place for us because we could choose convenient safety options, all our students were under 18. Each of them had a user name and a password. All the tools available on Wikispaces are very easy to use and the tutorials which are available in English can be used as genuine documents for lessons.
It was a great experience for all of us !
|
|
|
|
Post by nataliya on Jan 20, 2011 10:35:50 GMT
Dear Nadina, Thank you for sharing your experience of working with a wiki. Now i have a better understanding on how to use it in the classroom. Nataliya Hello! I have read the article provided and it really is interesting. To be very short, I will answer the two questions: 1. So far I have noticed that the BaW 2011 wiki is created by one user, while the others (including myself) can edit its content. It is a linked network of resources of different types which can be accessed very easily. There is a relationship between pages and there is a cross-linking. 2. From my experience I can tell you that so far I have used a wiki - it can be accessed here: my-english-portfolio.wikispaces.com/. It is based on one of the textbooks I use with my students - English Portfolio, OUP. This wiki I created last year proves to be extremely helpful for my students and it made my work easier, as I can post everything I need online. All the best, Nadina |
|
|
|
Post by nataliya on Jan 20, 2011 11:55:04 GMT
A blog is an online journal where we can add pictures, files, presentations. Readers can leave their comments and feedback. I have a blog mystepsschool4.blogspot.com/ but I would like to make it English as well. A wiki is a group of web pages that allows users to add content, but unlike blogs you it can be edited. There is also no inherent structure, so the pages can be organized differently. I plan to create a class blog or wiki, but I am still not sure what is better. As my students are allowed to edit the wiki page, won't they make something wrong with the page? How could it be controlled? When subscribed to RSS, users no longer have to visit many individual sites in order to obtain up-to-date information about their content, the information is sent to them. However, I don't clearly understand how it works. I am a Facebook member and use it for sharing my news with my friends worldwide. Nataliya |
|
|
|
Post by nadinne on Jan 20, 2011 16:58:38 GMT
Hello!
Thank you very much for your appreciation and the wonderful words. I really liked the wiki and it was a great pleasure for me to create it. It took me some time, but I got so involved in it... and the most important thing, I put myself in my students' shoes and I tried to imagine what they'd like to find there. I can tell you this wiki is a real success among my students and it really makes my life easier.
|
|
One way of keeping them alive would probably continue blogging with other groups. It is true that we generally create a blog for a specific group and once we leave that group, the blog dies. I also have my share of innactive blogs. I browse them once in while and miss the students I used to have and marvel and the good job we did. 
