So this week I got to go in depth and research a topic that I was told growing up was not to be used as research. High school told us that "Wiki was tricky" and anyone could post on it therefore it was not to be trusted. That was the old way of thinking. After looking at wikis and how they could be used in education I was impressed. There are lots of things to do with Wikis and even trusted research that is out there. I looked up a few topics I know whole lot about and man.....that info was right on! No lies or mistakes that I could find when reading the written word of Wiki!
I have also enjoyed continuing reading on blogging and using it in schools. It seems that the idea is still coming into acceptance in the schools. It will, I am sure, take some time yet....but they will get there. Teachers in our district are still struggling with a classroom webpage that they simply have to edit the text, everything else is all set up. I guess it would be a long way to go to ask them to set up their own blogs. But once they see just how successful it can be and easy....I am sure they will jump on board.
Group work this week again in the Etherpad was a bit un-nerving. I am still fearful that someone will screw with the groups work it would be lost. I am also finding that the rainbow effect with this is frustrating for some people. The lack of a spell check is also concerning for those who depend on it......I guess I am having to check my own spelling for now!
I know Louis would not be pleased, but I write my answers in Word and paste them into Etherpad. In fact, I do that for many of these services where my comments have been lost in a page refresh or connection issue. Google Docs is really the only service I routinely use to write purely online as it is one of the few online services where I have not lost work or had blips during this class. If you use Chrome or Firefox their built in spell checker will assist in Etherpad. I’m guessing that you are using IE as it is the only major browser that does not have a built in spell check tool.
ReplyDeleteI also had a good experience with Wikipedia. I didn't have the best impression of it (not sure why) but after looking into it this week, I came to a similar understanding. I feel much more confident with the information provided, especially knowing that it is checked and cited. I think that it would be a bit too much for my students to look at but good for me to pull info off of to use or give them.
ReplyDeleteI understand being given the opportunity to explore other collaborative word documenting services because if students don't or can't have Google Accounts, that creates a problems using Google Docs. However, since we do have accounts, I would much rather use that. I think that it is much more reliable and contained. I didn't have any issues during the first week's activities, but did run into a 2.5 hour slot of time when it wouldn't let me load the page and prevented me from using the document.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that it is slow going with implementing some of these things in schools, like Google Forms, teacher websites, and Wikis. What I have learned is that unfortunately have to mandate some of this stuff or it will never be used. When we bought SmartBoards for every classroom we installed them all over the summer and collected all of the overhead projectors except for a few spares. If we had left the overheads, there would have been teachers that would've never used their SmartBoards because their logic was "there is nothing wrong with the overhead". The same can be said for a lot of other technical advancements. It's just the way people are, teachers included. People, in general, fear change and will stick to their old methods to ensure their own comfort.