Jill+Burchardt

Initial Thoughts...

**WIKIS IN PLAIN ENGLISH** What a great way for multiple people to communicate on the same topic at the same time! My mom often emails my brother, sister, and I at the same time and we each respond. Sometimes we don't respond to everyone so you never know what the other person/people have said. Even if you do respond to everyone, you are constantly scrolling through long emails that include many replies or looking through separate emails to put all of the information together. Wikis seem like a great way for everyone to get their information out there in the same place for everyone else to see.

**8 WAYS TO USE SCHOOL WIKIS** I love the idea of putting announcements for teachers on a wiki. So much of our morning announcements are spent on teacher related news that the kids don't care about and teachers often miss because they are busy taking care of all the morning duties they are expected to have done by a certain time (attendance, lunch count). Also it would cut down on the number of emails teachers receive during the day about meetings, assemblies, subs, etc. It would all be in one place! A goal for our school for the coming school year is to dramatically cut down on our paper usage. Wikis could be a huge help. We could set up a wiki for students/parents with weekly newsletters, lunch menus, forms, etc. and one for teachers with meeting agendas, forms, etc. Our school has also been working on making a curriculum map for K-8 grades. It is difficult to get all the the teachers that are involved together at the same time to work on it. Also, if teachers thought of something to add but didn't have the map with them, it would be easy to find it and imput their information.

**POSSIBILITIES FOR 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION** It is strange to think that we don't even know what kind of technology will be available when our students graduate high school or college. I remember that when I was in elementary school we had one computer lab in the hallway at the back of the computer lab with Apple computers--the ones with the floppy disks! I remember the first cell phone my parents got--the battery was at least twice as big as a whole cell phone is these days. It is our job as educators to prepare our students for their futures. One of the technology goals for our school is that by the 2012-2013 school year, we will provide each student with some sort of technology device. We are slowly moving towards that goal school wide. Within the past several years, all of our classrooms have gotten SMART Boards. We have SMART Response "clickers" that teachers can use to create activities, tests, worksheets, etc. for the SMART Board to assess students' learning instead of traditional paper and pencil methods. Even my three year old daughter knows about texting, using cell phones to take pictuers, and using the sketch pad on our phones! With all of the technology that we are incorporating into our daily lives, both in and out of school, I worry that students are losing some of the social and academic skills they need. For example, students don't need to communicate with people face to face because they can text or email. I think texting also affects students' writing skills (grammar, spelling, punctuation). Who knows that the future holds... ﻿This past school year, I began updating all of my units, lessons, activities for use on the SMART Board with the Notebook software. I have enjoyed this process, but could spend hours on one lesson. I also wrote quizzes using the Notebook software so that my students could take a quiz using the "clickers" for SMART Response. The time involved in recreating everything is worth it; I just wish I had more time on a daily basis during the school year to update. I always think I'll get a lot finished over the summer. Who knows? I wonder like you what the future is going to look like in my middle school. By the time I update all my unit lessons and quizzes, will there be a new technology? You have summarized each website quite well. --Michelle

**READ/WRITE WEB WITH WILL RICHARDSON PT. 1** Will Richardson gives a very good description of how reading and writing have changed for today's students. Because it is easier to publish your work on the internet now, writing has a purpose (connecting or networking). "New literacies" are forming based on connective reading and writing. Now writing is becoming multimedia. Not only is there text, but there can be audio, video, graphics, etc. Teachers also need to be specifically teachign their students to be active readers. Because publishing work to the internet is much easier, more people are doing it. Not all of these people are experts, so students need to be able to determine what is reliable information and what is not. Teachers need to be provided with professional development. If several teachers can attend a training and actually use the tool (wiki) instead of just hearing about or seeing it, they will be able to take that knowledge back to their districts to train other teachers.

**READ/WRITE WEB WITH WILL RICHARDSON PT. 2** Will continues his discussion of the future of education in this digital world. As we all know, it is difficult to paint a picture of our kids' futures, but we do know that it will likely be very collaborative. They will be working in real time with people from all over the world and will therefore need to be sensitive to differences amoung individuals. We also can predict that there will be much less paper used. Most things will be done using technology and students will have to determine how to organize all of the information they are obtaining. Alternative types of schools are becoming much more popular including virtual and charter schools. Richardson predicts that unless typical K-12 schools change their vision, they will not be able to withstand the technological change of the future. It is not clear who the change will start with, but he is suggesting that it needs to come from national leadership as well. It is possible that in the future "physical space learning" that we are all accustomed to will no longer exist, at least not to the degree it does today.

**WRITING IN THE 21ST CENTURY: NCTE GUIDELINES** I found the following guidelines to be very helpful when thinking about planning your writing instruction. --taken from [] Students, and people in general, are writing in so many different ways--emails, texts, wikis, blogs, paper and pencil. We need to recognize that all of these are forms of writing even though they may not produce a handwritten paper copy of something. Schools need to integrate these different writing modes into their writing instruction by using iPads, cell phones, comptuers, etc. It is difficult for many students to come to school and stare at a paper all day when they are used to being constantly stimulated by technology when they are outside of school. Teachers need to strive to achieve a balance between traditional writing and technology based writing.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Our schools and our nation need to recognize and validate the many ways we all are writing.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We need to develop new models of writing, design a new curriculum supporting those models, and create models for teaching that curriculum.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We need to make sure that all students have the opportunity to write and learn in intellectually stimulating classrooms.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We need to recognize that out-of-school literacy practices are as critical to students’ development as what occurs in the classroom and take advantage of this to better connect classroom work to real-world situations that students will encounter across a lifetime.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**BEST EDUCATIONAL WIKIS OF 2010** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I think the winner of the award for 2010 had a great idea for sharing information about Croatia with others, "Greetings from Around the World." In return, she and her students could learn about other parts of the world as well. I really liked how the students created glogs to tell about their state or country. I could really see using those in my classroom. In the past my students ahve done research on whales, spiders, islands, and states. Creating a glog would be a neat way for them to incorporate technology to show off what they have learned.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Thoughts on Wikipedia in the classroom...

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**WILL RICHARDSON TALKS ABOUT WIKIPEDIA** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Wikipedia is a great resource for research, BUT it should not be our students' only source. I know that I (and other teachers at my school) tell my students that Wikipedia is not an acceptable source to use for a research essay. As Will states, it is a good place to start, but you need to verify the information in other places. I knew that Wikipedia is a collection of many people's ideas and that the writing is not very good just from visiting it myself. However, I did not know that research has shown that it is almost as accurate and reliable as other sources. It also has an advantage over other sources of information like encyclopedias because it is more current due to the fact that it can be edited at anytime from anywhere by anyone.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**WIKIPEDIA: BAN IT OR BOOST IT?/WIKIPEDIA AND THE CLASSROOM** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I learned a few things about Wikipedia from this website. First, I did not know that Wikipedia has been around since 2001. It seems that just recently (in the past 5 years or so) I have been hearing more about it. Second, I never imagined that more than 1,000,000 people visit the site every day. It does make sense though. If you have ever done a search for a topic, a Wikipedia entry is always near the top. Third, I also never thought about how many more entries there are on Wikipedia than in a print or online encyclopedia. There are almost 10 times more entries on Wikipedia than an encyclopedia. If you can imagine it, it probably has an entry on Wikipedia! Also, Wikipedia allows the "common man" to contribute to a vast body of knowledge rather than soley a group of scholars. David Rogers brings up a good point in his article. Most families cannot affort a large, expensive set of encyclopedias. However, most familes have access to the internet (or are able to go somewhere with access). Consequently, for many families, Wikipedia is their only available "encyclopedia."

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**THE ABCS OF WEBSITE EVALUATION** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Kathy Shrock provides a wonderful tool for teachers to use with their classes to evaluate the different aspects of websites such as citations, misinformation, bias, dates, and so much more. She has wonderful links to resources teachers can use to guide their students to finding reliable sources. One of the handouts goes over questions to ask regarding the 5Ws of website evaluation including who, what, where, when, and why. I think it would be a great idea to have these questions posted in computer labs or near computers in classrooms as a constant reminder to students about what they should be looking for when choosing online sources.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**USING WIKIPEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM: A GOOD STARTING POINT** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This article points out a good word of advice when using Wikipedia: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//According to the Wikipedia FAQ, "Properly written articles cite the sources, and a reader should rely on the Wikipedia article as much, but no more, than the sources the article relies on. If an article doesn't cite a source, it may or may not be reliable. Students should never use information in Wikipedia for formal purposes (such as a school essay) until they have checked those external sources."// <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In other words--CHECK YOUR SOURCES!

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3 insights/things I learned today about Web 2 tools in teaching/learning...

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">--I really had no idea what a wiki was before today. It seems like it would be very similar to the classroom website that I currently have. However, a wiki allows people (students, parents, etc.) to quickly and easily add information or comments. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">--I had no idea how big Wikipedia was. We always tell our kids not to use it for research, but it seems like it is an acceptable place for students to start their research as long as they know what to next. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">--I have never formally taught my students what to look for when evaluating websites. We normally just tell them if they can or cannot use a website for their research. Now I have some resources I can use to directly teach my students how to determine if a source is reliable. This is a really big deal since most of our resources are online now.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Questions/concerns I have about using Web 2 in the classroom...

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I like the idea of having a Wiki for my class, but there has to be time built in for students to add to them individually or in small groups. If everyone tried to do it at once, it would probably end up being a problem for half of the students. This could be hard to do since I will probably only have 2 computers in my classroom. Maybe it could be built in as a center during guided reading...I really like the idea of having the students do more work on the computer instead of on paper. Then I could check their work from anywhere. BUT how much are they missing out on if most of their work is done on the computer...grammar, spelling, punctuation. They don't have to worry about most of it because the "computer will fix it." I would still be concerned if I had middle or high school students that they might not always use the best judgement when responding on a wiki, but that is something that would need to be discussed and students would need to understand the consequences for not following the rules.

<span style="color: #ae2929; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Jill, very thoughtful journey through the websites. I enjoyed your insightful comments. You have an ability to get to the relevant points and make the application to your own teaching environment. I like your idea of maximixing your 2 computers by making them centers. We don't knowthe future, but for the immediate future, it appears computers as we know them will be the tool for writing - preparing kids to write effectively in that writing environment seems a worthwhile thing to do, so the more you can give them the opportunity to do that, the better. <span style="color: #ae2929; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I work with many teachers, and I must say that I have never had a middle or high school teacher complain about student abuse of wiki privileges. When this kind of collaborative effort is presented as serious, student seem to step up to the plate!

<span style="color: #ae2929; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Good work today! Emmy

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">﻿Wikis in the classroom...

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The more I learn about wikis, the more uses I can see for them in the classroom. I like the idea of giving each student their own page on a classroom wiki. It could be a place for them to demonstrate what they have learned without having to produce a formal piece of work. It would allow them to view other's ideas and comment, agree, or disagree. I also like the idea of having important documents, notes, etc. available on the wiki for students that are absent or lose/forget their work. It shifts the responsiblity from the teacher to the students and parents. On one wiki I saw a neat feature by Shelfari. It looked like a book shelf with books (faced out) that the class was going to read that year. The same teacher also used the discussion board to pose questions about the books they were reading (1-2) and then asked the students to respond. I also like the idea of having little interactive math games right on the page that the students can work on if they have free time. Sometimes by the time the kids find the site they are supposed to be on, it is time to log off. Most of the wikis I looked at did not seem to include the amount of collaboration that wikis are capable of. Most of the sites I looked at simply were teachers putting information out there, much like a classroom website.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I also noticed that Greetings from Around the World won the award for best educational wiki in 2009 and 2010!

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Changing Education Paradigm...

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What an interesting clip! I think so much of what he says is true. We are preparing students for a future that we are uncertain about. We need to be teaching them ways to be successful no matter what the future brings. It is interesting how most kids don't believe you have to go to college to get a good job. Even 12 years ago when I was in high school, the overwhelming majority of my classmates went to college so they could "get a good job." I think the ADHD comment is so true. More and more students are being identified as having attention issues, but when you stop to think about it, school is much less stimulating (for the most part) than everything they do outside of school. The question of why we group children by age is a very good one. It would make so much more sense for us to group students by their talents, interests, etc. I think everyone (teachers, students, parents) could benefit from a reorganization of the typical school system. I have heard before that students' creative (divergent) thinking decreases after kindergarten. It makes a lot of sense. Most of the things we do in schools have one right answer that students are expected to find. By the time kids get to upper elementary or middle school, they have a very hard time thinking on their own and being creative. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Wikis could provide an excellent way for students to collaborate more and build in more of the divergent thinking they will likely need to be successful in the future. I think we, as teachers, need to provide more opportunities for students to work collabortively on problems that do not have one right answer. We need to teach them to be problem solvers and to use divergent thinking. One idea, to start with, might be to pose an open ended question to your students each week/month on a wiki. Then students can make comments and suggestions throughout the week or month and come up with a plan for solving the problem by the end of the specified time. In addition, using the computer is more engaging for most, if not all, studnets than listening to a teacher talk or writing something in a notebook. As the video mentioned, most great thinking happens in groups--in school and in the real world. We need to teach our students how to be productive, respectful, and responsible group members whether in person or online. I think it would be important to go over your expectations for the students in these types of collaborative experiences.