Chapter 6 Log

I'm very interested in Web 2.0 technologies and how they can affect education, so I was immediately drawn into this chapter when these technologies were introduced on the second page.

I had never heard of Knowledge Forum, so I set off to check it out. (Interesting note: going to knowledgeforum.com redirects you to motion.com, the parent company of Knowledge Forum; one must use a www. in front of the URL to access the Knowledge Forum site directly.) The site allows for a demo using the Java platform in order for a user to see what the product is like. Although I found it to be a bit confusing, this may be because the demo does not have the ful functionality that the full version has. It seemed to me to almost combine a wiki and a concept map and a forum. Given that I thought it was a bit confusing, however, it's probably not something I'd use in my classroom.

Wikis, however, definitely are something I would use. It is easy to see the benefit of wikis in education just by looking at the wikis we use in our own classroom. I think wikis are a good way to get kids to work together and to realize that the internet enables them to connect to people who have valuable information on whatever topic they are interested in. Using wikis in the classroom can also provide the right environment to discuss why wikis are not always the most reliable source available on the internet. I would integrate wikis as much as possible, letting students use them for projects and using them for class assignments and other classwide information. I really want to teach secondary history at some point, and I think that wikis would integrate particularly well with history, such as Dan McDowell's Holocaust wiki. For example, a class could have a wiki with different pages for founding fathers.

My inquiry question is about how blogs could be used to further education, so I really enjoyed the section on blogs in the chapter. I don't want to discuss much of it here, since I want to save it for the inquiry assignment. However, one idea I had for my future class, tying into history, would be for students to have a blog as a historical figure of whatever period we are discussing. Students would need to make chronological and historically accurate posts in their blogs. I have also found several blogs specifically for teachers with lesson plans, tips, and research for teachers and by teachers.

The bottom line is that there is a ton of information on the internet and students and teachers should use as much of this information as possible, assuming it is reliable. Gaining access to this information can be very valuable and can increase learning and networking abilities.