Week 2 of CeDo 535

This week, one of the things we investigated in class is the use of Wikis.  For the past few years, I allowed my students to use Wikipedia as a source of information for their work in my class.  After investigating it more this week, I feel more comfortable with my decision to allow that.  However, I am still going to continue to require students to cross check any information that they find with other sources.  As I did as a kid when it was books, magazines and encyclopedias, I always had to cross check my sources.  I continue to feel that Wikipedia is a good place to verify "big ideas."  Although some of the information on the site might be false, the main topics seem to be concrete. 

I am also interested in making a wiki for my civics class.  I think it would be a great tool to have to gather all of my students thoughts into one central location.  This year, I have tried a new way of teaching with my Civics students.  I post questions on Moodle and have the students find the information on their own using the Internet.  I'm able to do this because I have my class in a computer lab this year, so that helps.  After they find the information, they put it into word or powerpoint and then put it into a shared folder.  We then take a day to look at the info everyone got and discuss it.  If move to using a wiki for class, the students can constantly see what others are posting and make changes as they see fit. 

Week 1 of CeDO 535

This week I started my new class called Facilitating Collaboration using Web Tools.  I found the assignment on investigating blogging services to be quit useful.  I really liked the this site called Coveritlive.  Coveritlive is a service that allows users to cover events live.  If there are speeches, sporting events or other live events going on, this service lets you post your thoughts in real time, so others can see what you are thinking about the topic at hand.  It is very similar to instant messaging.    As a person posts  in real time, readers are able to post comments, which pop up like instant messages.  I can see this to be an exciting way to get students involved with discussions.  This services also allows the readers to answer questions to polling questions that the blogger shares.   This services is free and can work in your school if you get certain school restrictions lifted.  
I also like the book that we are starting to read, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" by Will Richardson.  This book looks into the many new tools that are out there to use in school.  I really like the idea of blogging more with students and having more of a connection that way with my students.  I recently made Facebook pages for 2 of my classes, and so far that has been a fun way of interacting with my students in a way I have not done in the past.