Blogs and Wikis in Education Project

Finally, on your blog create a post and title it “Blogs and Wikis in Education” and respond to the issues listed below. Your blog post should be at least a paragraph of text in response to each of these three statements


1) Identify and describe 3 interesting/innovative ways blogs and/or wikis are being used in K-12 classrooms.

Blogs and/or wikis are being used for many different reasons. They are being used in K-12 classrooms for teachers to communicate with parents. It is very difficult sometimes to have young children especially be responsible for telling their parents about important events or homework. It is difficult for them to remember to give their parents a hand out about important reminders as well. Blogs and/or wikis can be very beneficial in communicating with the parents about homework assignments, important events, and reminders etc. Another way blogs and/or wikis can be used in k-12 classrooms are they can be used for students to post their ideas on certain subjects such a book, a class activity, etc. it always students to express their feelings with a creative way of incorporating technology. Blog and/or wiki's can also be used for students to simply communicate with one another. They can post comments to one another about class assignments or their feelings towards a learning assignment. By looking at what other children are writing one can get a feel of what others feel while also expressing their own feelings and attitudes. Blogs and/or wikis were also used for school wide news which I thought was a good way for the school to use a resource that didn't involve paper.



2) Describe how you might use RSS readers/aggregators within a classroom setting.

One might use RSS/aggregators within a classroom setting to pull information from different areas to provide an overall view of a subject. This may be beneficial to a classroom because you can take a news feed and pull information from different areas to show students. This can provide students with seeing new information from various areas without printing out numerous sheets of paper. On one subject you can pull up numerous stories so that students can read about the subject in different aspects. Along with a bookmark, it provides students and teacher with new information that comes along. It collects all data and provides it on one page. By being on a blog/wiki RSS/aggregators can provide students/teachers with information all on one page as opposed to receiving numerous emails.

3) Describe at least 2 pros and 2 cons of using blogs and wikis in education.


A pro for wikis and blogs in education are that create enthusiasm for writing for students. Instead of just writing on paper and doing the "normal" daily routines students can express technology and be excited about writing and communicating with their peers and teacher. Another pro of blogs and wikis in education is that they help students find their own individual self or voice. Since blogs and wikis can be used like journals, students are allowed to express themselves. They can help students open up and be excited about learning and communicating. A con of using wikis and blogs are that not every child has access to a computer at their home which may make this child feel unaccepted or under privledged. It also would not allow them to participate with the assignment or in discussions. They would therefore not be able to finish what the other students do and will feel left out. Wikis and blogs can also take away from traditional paper/pencil tasks and children may only feel that they want to do these on the computer/internet. Children and students still need to feel excited about learning when technology is not involved as well.