Blogs and Wikis in Education

1. While looking at different classroom blogs for K-12 classrooms, I discovered several different ways that teachers are using blogs and wikis in interesting and innovative ways. In one blog, which was entirely dedicated to the book Sarah, Plain and Tall, the teacher posted questions that required the students to critically read and analyze the book. The students then commented on the blog with their replies to the questions. Another blog that I looked at provided students with summer reading lists and the chance to talk about and discuss their reading with the teacher and the other students in the class during the summer months. I thought it was neat that the students were able to participate in a low-key sort of way during the summer, while the teacher was able to make sure that learning was still happening. I also found a wiki where students who were working on a group science project together each had a page, where they could post information and "meet" on-line. I thought that this was really neat because it makes it easier for students to get together and brainstorm without actually having to meet outside of class.

2. RSS Readers or Aggregators are programs that allow you to select different news or blog-type sites, and have their updated information sent directly to you. In a classroom, this could be really helpful, because the class could select different topics that they were interested in, and the teacher could, maybe at the beginning of the day, read over the news on those topics, so that students would get updated information without a lot of extra work for the teacher. Also, if students are required to do any sort of current events project, having them set up their own aggregator could help them find new, relevant information easily, without exposing them, necessarily, to some of the dangers of searching the internet.

3. There are a lot of potential benefits to using blogs and wikis in education. The most exciting pro would be that it gives students a way to communicate while they are at home. They can interact with other students and participate in web-based projects. Another pro is that students are given the chance to work with technology and experience creating and contributing to the Internet. This is incredibly important, as it will help students develop a level of comfort with using and creating technology. One drawback to using wikis or blogs, as with using any sort of sharing technology on the internet, is that it may compromise student safety, especially if any personal information or pictures are posted. The other major drawback, that I can foresee, is that students who do not have the same level of access to computers and technology, whether for economic or other reasons, may feel isolated or may have difficulty completing assignments.