Week 5

Chapter four is about Wikis. While reading this chapter I found out a lot of great knowledge about Wikis. The section about wikis in schools was interesting to me. I don’t know if I would want to create a wiki in my classroom just because there are so many other ways of creating a site that I feel it would be much easier to maintain. Although I do think there are a lot of positive attributes that go along with wikis. I think Wikis should be used in a high school not elementary level.

Chapter five is about RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, also known as a web blog. According to David Perry of the University of Albany he says, “the speed of reading in the age of the digital has changed, and we need to help students navigate this.” I find this to be very true for the 21^st century learners. Literacy is no longer how well students can decipher text on a screen. We as educators have to prepare our students for this much complex world. I personally find it difficult to set up a RSS account let alone a twitter account for the classroom. I do like the idea of the RSS and I like all the tools that go along with it. I think it’s a great learning tool in the classroom.

In the article Digital Literacies, I found it to be very knowledgeable and useful about wikis. According to Knobel and Lankshear, “A wiki is a collection of web pages whose content is typically organized around a specific purpose or pattern.” “Wikis have a great potential for promoting online and offline collaboration and for disseminating research and practical resources among educators in accessible ways,” according to Knobel and Lankshear. I feel this is very important in the education world today because collaboration is very important among educators in today’s society. Overall, I learned a lot from reading this article.

In the article Radical Change and wikis: Teaching new literacies, had a lot of great information about wikis. According to Dobson, “wiki is an easily learned, open-source software program that allows all users to access and edit the pages on an ongoing basis.” I thought the study that was done by a research team in 2004 was interesting. At the end of the study the research team points out that they wondered if the students were more attracted to the visual elements in the books and focused on them in their own writing simply because the research team had relied on the images to introduce the conception of “something different” and modeled how the research team would “read” the pictures. I thought this was a very interesting point that the research team brought up because most of the time students do just follow the teachers role and copy what the teacher or role model does instead of thinking outside the box when creating something new. I also liked how the article pointed out how we as teachers “need to think less about teaching and more about engaging our students in the process.”

Week 4

In chapter six-titled The Social Web it consists of information regarding the web. Throughout reading this chapter I learned a lot of valuable information on how to do different types of shortcuts while using the web. I found the section on Diigolet toolbar to be very valuable for myself. I have never heard of this tool before, I find it to be very valuable when searching for educational information throughout the web.

In chapter nine titled Social Networks it consists of information regarding social networks throughout the World Wide Web. I have never heard of Ning before. I found it to be a great tool that allows children and teachers from around the world to connect. I also like the idea of how Elementary teachers use the network as an art center for individual learners. I feel Ning is a great tool for students to show their artistic ability through a social media site.

I found the article Social Networking Goes to School a great article. Now that everything today is based upon social networking I do think it is a great way for students and educators to use a social networking site to stay connected in and outside of school. According to Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, “social networking has changed the way educators teach and students learn.” I find this to be very true just with blogging. Looking at educational blogs I found a lot of professional development links that were posted for educators. I feel social networking is a great way for teachers to stay up to date and connected with the education world.

I found the article Tweacher (n): The Twitter Enhanced Teacher to have a lot of great ideas on how to use twitter as an educational tool. My favorite was how a teacher can set up an online poll and then the students can tweet their answer. I find this to be very fun and exciting for students to use. Twitter can also be used as a collaborative way for students to write creatively. Overall, I feel this article had a lot of great educational ideas for teachers to use to stay connected with their students through twitter.

Week 3

The article on Hot Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking was a very knowledgeable article. I liked the point the author made about how a literature response blog simply moves the students ideas and responses online. Online blogs also prompt and invites student responses to a text through open-ended questions that teacher ask. Literacy online blogs also promotes the use of multiple perspectives amongst students. This type of teamwork and collaboration is necessary in our global economy today. This type of collaboration may also serve as an awareness of effective writing and different perspectives amongst students. Overall, I feel online blogging promotes students to read, think and comment on other students work within the classroom.

The article Teaching With Authors’ Blogs: Connections, Collaboration, Creativity was about the importance and potential use of blogging throughout the classroom today regarding the use of authors’ blogs. I feel it is very important for the students to connect with the authors. Through the use of authors online blogs students can connect and learn more about an author.

Chapter two and three in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom was about weblogs and the different uses it has inside the classroom. I liked the idea of how a blog can be an online “filing cabinet.” Not only is this useful for the students, but it also can be a great way amongst the other students in the class to have a discussion and collaborate without taking away from class time. It also is a way for students to create an online portfolio of their work that they will have forever. I have to be honest I never realized what a great tool an online blog was for students until I read these two chapters and articles. I definitely think an online blog is an educational benefit for teachers and students. Online blogs bring so much collaboration and discussion throughout literacy amongst students. Therefore, online blogs can be used inside and outside the classroom in many different ways. Online blogs are beneficial for teachers, students, parents, and the community.

Week 2

While reading the article What Research Reveals for Classroom Practice, I found the statistics that were brought up to be very interesting. According to Lenhart, Madden, and Hitlin, eighty-seven percent of students between the ages of 12 and 17 in the United States report using the Internet, nearly 11,000,000 daily. I find this to be a very high statistic. According to Parsad and Jones, in 1994, only 3 percent of all K–12 classrooms in the United States had Internet access; today, 93 percent have access. I find this to be a positive statistic. I do believe that the internet in the classroom is not only a great tool for teachers when presenting a lesson or preparing a lesson, but it is also a great tool for students to use to do research or use it for fun learning activities/games. I remember when I was in fourth grade my class was the first classroom to have a set of five Macintosh computers. The computer did not have Internet access, we only used the computer for educational games. I remember during free time everyone wanted to use the computer because it was so new and fun for all of us. I personally really enjoyed using the computer at school and I did learn a lot from the educational games that we were aloud to play on the computer. Overall, I feel that the Internet and computers have helped increase students and teachers knowledge of technology abilities all around the world. After reading this article I feel my viewpoint on new literacy reflects upon the same as Coiro and Leu. I see new literacy as an important new strategy and dispositions, required by the Internet that are essential for online reading comprehension, learning, and communication. I also feel that the Internet is helping our student’s today connect and collaborate with each other around the world. Whether its through an online blog, e-mail or web-cam. I feel that collaboration and communication is essential in the literacy world. The Internet is also helping us teach our students how to communicate and learn from other cultures around the world.

Chapter one in the book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, was a very knowledgeable chapter about the web. I liked how the chapter brought up how the web and technology in genera is becoming so advanced for adults, but easy to use for children. Children now of days know how to create more projects on the web then their parents, usually it’s the parents helping or teaching the children how to do things. This could become very dangerous because the parent does not really know what the child is actually doing. The author in chapter one brought up a great point about blogging, although blogging can become a great way to teach students how to communicate, collaborate, and spark up a debate it can also be very dangerous in the fact that if a stranger comments on a students blog. We as educators have to explain to our students that a blog is out there for the public to read. Although I do think if someone does comment on a student’s blog it will more likely be a positive comment.

Chapter ten was a very interesting chapter to read. I personally think it is a great idea to upload books from research libraries to an online google database. I feel that it would be very beneficial to everyone. This would be much easier and faster to access instead of going to the library and searching for the book. I also liked how in this chapter it pointed out the independent work. When I was in elementary school I remember the teachers were very strict about working independently. Now a day there is a lot more collaboration going on in the classrooms. I think this is great! I feel collaborating and communicating is the key to a successful person. The more collaboration, communication, and teamwork involved during a project will help students succeed in the real life. Now a days there are so many ways to communicate with one another through technology it is much more easier for people to collaborate.