Wikis

I first read what our weekly discussion was about I had no idea what Wikis was. The only thing that I could relate it to was Wikipedia just because I think wiki is a wierd word. I discovered through an article what exactly Wikis is, how it came about, and how it is used for online education. The article was written by Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman, and Wanlei Zhou who are professors at the School of Information Technology. The school is in Victoria, Australia. Anyway, these people go on to explain that Wikis is a fully editable websites. Anyone can visit, read, re-organize and updat the structure and content of a Wiki as they see necessary. The only thing a web user needs to get involved with a wiki is a web browser. Wikis is a collarboration in an online environment and is also used for online education. Wiki projects illustrate how elearning practitioners can and are moving beyond their comfort zone by using Wikis to enhance the process of teaching and learning online. An example of an "open-editing" online environment is Wikipedia, a encyclopedia that has been updated and edited by many different web users. Another program called Computer Supported Callaborative Learning (CSCL) is a development of collaboration by meand of technology to augment education and research. CSCL says that students use Wikis to create a set of documents that reflect the shared knowledge of the learning group they are in. The article further goes on to tell how exactly a wiki page is set up and how it actually works. When comparing Wikis there are alike and unique features with tons of information. The rest of the article is about the e-learning at Deakin University which works with the School of Information Technology. The university offers dual mode delivery of higher education degrees to students. The school promotes online learning and it is fascilitated by WebCT Vista. THe WebCT Vista includes bulletin boards and synchronous chat rooms to engage with the online learning.

How does this article and Wikis relate to learning and education. Well, like the article said Wikis is a collabaration in an online environment. So that alone sums up that Wikis can be used for online education. Just like our class is online education. We use blogger.com to communicate, but we could use Wikis to communicate and even make chatrooms with bulletin boards. I can say that I never realized that Wikipedia was edited all the time. I guess if I wanted to change something on a Wikipedia site I could. Like for example what the definition of the word "chat room" means. So does that mean that if anyone can edit Wikis that Wikipedia does not really contain true detailed information? Who can say that Wikipedia contains only assumptions? I think that further research should be done on Wikis. I mean I know what Wikis are and how they work now, but are they truly being helpful for learning strategies?

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html

Blogging

For this weeks weekly discussion the topic was blogging. I found an article on a website called northeast. The title of the article is Like it or Not: Blogging is Public Speaking and it was written by Mark Hayward. This site is particularly for people to post articles about blogging. People submit their articles and just one is chosen to be the article of the week. The article I read was this weeks top pick. The article basically talks about how the art of public speaking is compatible to blogging on the Internet. Both skills require you to make immediate connection with the audience. In both you choose how to present yourself which lets the people reading it view your tone, image, and brand. Speaking and blogging make a person put their selves out there in large masses. Public speaking and blogging are both acquired skills. They also require a person to be able to effectively communicate a message they are trying to make. The other part of the article talks about how a person can improve their blogging by doing public speaking. To take blogging to the next level, a person can improve their skill by talking in front of a group of people. When a person conquers their fear of public speaking they can improve their blogging. There is an event people can partake in called Toast Masters' Meetings. It is where people gather to work on their presentations and talents together. This event helps people speak in public better then that person can blog better. Mark Hayward gives some tips to help people start on their way to blogging. First start with a title and go from there. Use visuals to enhance the presentation. Get someone to provide constructive criticism. Never apologize. Make points to support your main topic. Provide information of value and seek input from the audience. He ends the article by stating that there will always be negative people, and to just focus on the positive every time all the time.
This article does relate to teaching and learning. Blogging is a technique that needs learning involved to understand how to do it correctly. A person has to be taught how to make their blogging better with different strategies, one being public speaking. We as a class are using blogging as part of our required assignments. I did not know what blogging really was and I am not to sure if I am doing it correctly yet. I have taken the public speaking class at our school and hopefully by already doing that it will help me express my thoughts my coherently. Blogging could be used in classrooms starting in high grades, helping kids become familiar with the Internet and to help kids express themselves in a different way rather than verbally.
I think this article gives many great tips and feedback about the skill of blogging. There were many tips to help me with my blogging. I think this article would be an advantage to anyone who is a beginner in this skill. I think speaking in front of people is a very hard aspect to overcome, but once you have done it it comes to you like another language. Just like with blogging, once you are familiar with it, it is a piece of cake.
I also think that further investigations about relating public speaking as a helper to blogging would be great. Maybe some statistics of people that have had experience speaking in front of audiences and people who have not. Comparing those statistics to the workmanship of their blogging.


http://northxeast.com/blogging/like-it-or-not-blogging-is-public-speaking/#more-197

Virtual Field Trips

I got my article from the New York Times online. It is called Traveling the World, Without So Much as a Hall Pass. It was written and published by Julius Charkes on March 27, 2oo7. The article is mainly about one school, White Plains Middle School, that has adopted the new trend of virtual field trips. This way students can travel around the world without actually having to leave the classroom and spend the money on traveling. The students have seen the Amazon Reef in Brazil, have talked face to face with Sri Lanka, chatted with NASA officials, and accompanied scuba divers along the Great Barrier Reefs of Australia. Unlike normal field trips virtual field trips do not require permission slips or fundraisers. Teachers think that this a great invention, they say that the students have no limits and can go anywhere. There is some required equipment to intend these field trip, such as interactive videoconferencing, camera projector, special hardware, and the internet. This equipment can run anywhere from $4,000 to $30,000. That is a lot of money just for a field trip right? Well the schools do get state aid to help pay for such pricey tools. The schools do have to pay a "content provider" for access to museums and such things. About $50 to several hundred per trip, just as much as a normal field trip would cost. Nationwide there are about 23,000 public schools that use the virtual field trip technique, that's about 1 in 4 schools. The principal of the school states that , "Students begin to have an understanding of themselves not just as citizens of White Plains, but of the world as well.” Other schools staff have claimed that they are worried that these virtual trips will take over live trips. Some staff argue that the virtual trips submerge kids to culture and the world and that it is expands global learning.
This relates to teaching and learning because students are seeing and participating in events other than their own that they are used to seeing and being in. I think this helps students to understand the world from a different view point. Diversity is everywhere. Being opted to other states in our country and to other countries children are learning that there is diversity and to welcome it. I think that virtual field trips are awesome and I wish that I had that opportunity when I was in grade school. Although I enjoyed the field trips I went on when I was younger. I thing that schools should do both kinds of trips. Kids do need to be outside and be involved and get to know the community and environment they live in. I think that more schools should write articles on their experience traveling virtually with their students. This might influence other schools to adopt this new way of learning outside the classroom.