Kimberly Schutte
With the growing use of the internet and technology in the classroom, teachers are always looking for new and interesting ways to engage their students in their education along with integrating technology. Such a new way to integrate the internet into the classroom is through the use of blogs and wikis, especially since more and more are being created today for the use in K-12 educational settings. In fact, there are a number of interesting and innovated ways to integrate a wiki or blog into the classroom. On interesting aspect of using a blog or wiki in the classroom is the ability for students to do collaborative work. With the ability to do more and more group work, students are becoming engaged in their learning which is exactly what happens with the ability to do collaborative work. Students who have the ability to use an educational blogging webpage or a wiki can work on projects with other students outside of the classroom. They can discuss the project or issues they are having as well as decide how to divide up the work load. Another innovative or interesting way blogs and wikis are being implemented into K-12 classroom include creating online class publications such as a class newsletter where not only students can access and read the publication but they can be part of it by writing their own articles to be part of the online class publication. This allows for students to be part of their classroom as well as reflect and express themselves to the other students, the teacher, the school, and the families of the students. Finally, another very interesting use of blogs and wikis in the classroom setting is the multimedia that students can use to access at home as well as at school. By have resources from school such as videos, podcasts, photos, and songs, this is a way for students to access these resources outside of the teacher’s classroom in order to learn from them even more. Further students can make comments and collaborate about these resources as well as use them for future reference, in homework, or in future projects.
The use of blogs and wikis in the classroom can have both beneficial factors as well as disadvantageous factors. Blogs and wikis can enhance education in ways that simple traditional teaching cannot reach alone. With using a blog or wiki, students can collaborate on homework, projects, or discussions outside of the classroom through the use of technology. This allows for the possibility of more small group projects as well as engaged learning. As well, just as wikis and blogs are important for interaction between the students in the classroom, wikis and blogs are resources that allow students to gain outside resources from other students in other towns, areas, states, or nations through connections online. As well, teachers can share resources and ideas online allowing for different possibilities of activities and lessons to occur in the classroom. However, using wikis and blogs in the educational world does have its setbacks. Because we still live in a world where technology is not readily available to everyone, as a future teacher, the use of wikis or blogs outside of the classroom just may not be a feasible option with the diversity of technology available resources to students. As well when considering the use of the internet in any classroom activity, teachers have to be aware of what may be found on the internet, placed on the wiki or blog, and who is reading the blog because some material may not be appropriate. Even further, the internet may not always be a dependable tool with the loss of internet connections and web pages being deleted, this could affect the student’s ability to use and actual use of a wiki or blog in an educational setting. Nevertheless, there are a vast number of possibilities that are becoming available for use in the classroom through the integration of technology and no matter what, as a future teacher, one must consider both the pros and cons of the use of these technologies in the classroom.
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