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The Read/Write Web: Blogs, Wikis and MySpace. What
Should a Teacher Do?
Janine Lim
Links at www.janinelim.com
Email: [email protected]
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Overview
• Teachers Reading Blogs
• Teachers Writing Blogs
• Students Reading Blogs & RSS Feeds
• Students Writing Blogs & Making Podcasts
• Wikis
• Teaching Safety & Responsible Use
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“It’s Not Your Father’s Internet”
• “read/write web”
• blogs
• wikis
• del.icio.us
• flickr
• podcasting
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Cool Cat Teacher Blog• A good teacher never makes excuses. A good
teacher always makes the best of a situation. A good teacher pursues excellence. I will be excellent as I learn from NECC.
The same teachers and technology administrators who learn from NECC virtually are probably also the same ones that teach incredible things on older technology. "Excuse" is not in our vocabulary. "Do it," is.
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Benefits to You
You're in a new community, learning from other educators, gaining new friends around the world & receiving support from resources around the world.
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EdTech Blogs to Read
• www.nadtdecblog.org
• davidwarlick.com/2cents
• weblogg-ed.com
• www.techsavvyed.net
• remc11.wordpress.com
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Finding Blogs to Read
• Will Richardson’s Ed Blog Listhttp://bloglines.com/public/wrichard
• http://educational.blogs.com/
• Google Blogsearchhttp://blogsearch.google.com/
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Why Blog? / Benefits
• Recording my learning
• The power of reflection
• Sharing my learning
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Blogging as Learning1. Modeling: the teacher “puts his/her mind on display”2. Coaching: teachers observe students performance of a
task, offering feedback3. Scaffolding: helping a student complete a task slightly
more difficult than the student is capable of completing on his/her own.
4. Articulating: drawing students out dialogically, helping to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge
5. Reflecting: debriefing, replaying and discussion after an activity
6. Exploring: students tackle new areas on their own-Christopher Sessums, http://elgg.net/csessums/weblog/10943.html
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Students Reading Blogs
• Current Events
• Environmental Issues
• Science Ethical Issues
• Health & Healthcare Issues
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Roles of Blogs in Education• Weblogs are a personal writing space. Easy, sharable, automatically
archived.• Weblogs are easily linked and cross-linked to form learning
communities. The school logs projects are examples. The school logs also enable a teacher to evaluate a student’s thinking, by reading explanations and assignments.
• Weblogs can become digital portfolios of students’ assignments and achievements.
• Weblogs are a novice’s web authoring tool.• Accumulated weblogs become a content management system.• Via digital storytelling, weblogs play a role in professional
development.
- Jay Cross - http://www.weblogg-ed.com/why-weblogs
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Students Caring About Work• “You took the blog down,” he said.
“You can’t do that.” “You have to put it back up,” he said.
• “Can’t we take our old posts with us?”• “It seems awfully quiet without our
other stuff.”• “I’m proud of my comments. Do I have
to leave them behind?”• “No one will know what who we are
and what we’ve done!”• “What about the old posts?”http://weblogg-ed.com/2006/caring-about-the-content/
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Benefits to Blogging• Motivation. Paper is worthless, it goes in the trash when
the year is over. Thinking of MySpace…kids are motivated to publish information
• Writing Skills. The audience has increased and kids are thinking more about what they’re writing and reflecting upon.
• Reading Skills. Writing begins with reading • Connective Learning.• Learning by Community Building.
-Will Richardson, weblogg-ed.com
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Podcasting…. Imagine…• World Language teachers creating audio files (MP3s) for
students to listen to…• Emailing the link to the students…• Archiving the audio files on their blogs…• Students in other schools listening & responding in
writing in the language…• Kids listening to language audio files on their own MP3
players…• Kids creating shows in Spanish…http://weblogg-ed.com/2006/my-world-lanuages-teachers-
are-getting-it/
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Class Podcast Examples• Room 208 & David Warlick• News shows• Weekly “what did we learn” reports• Scottish Craft Class Created podcasts to
describe the process of creating a project • Scottish History podcast of how children
were sent away from the cities during World War II.
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My Dream
• Kids using online tools to share their faith
• www.myspace.com/youthfest2006
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PAIR-SHARE
What application do you see in your classroom for students
writing blogs or making podcasts?
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Blogs vs. WikisWeb logs are great vehicles for an
interactive exchange of ideas between a handful of people, but blogs are not as effective when a large number of people want to collaborate, contribute, and easily find information on a given topic. That's when you need a wiki.
-Tim Stahmer
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What is a Wiki?
• A collaborative web tool for two or more people to work on a document
• Wiki-wiki" means "hurry quick" in Hawaiian.
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Wikipedia“According to the web traffic rankings site
Alexa.com, Wikipedia ranks second in popularity among all reference sites, trailing only Yahoo and ahead of popular resources such as MapQuest and Encyclopedia Britannica Online. What's more, Wikipedia is the 37th most visited web site overall.” Jan. 25, 2006, eSchool News
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/PFshowstory.cfm?ArticleID=6069
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Response to Wikipedia
• Don’t just use Google.
• Don’t just use Wikipedia.
• Bibliography: 50% print and 50% web. Compare them!
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Using Wikis
• Peer editing & feedback
• Group work
• Collaboration across distance & time
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PAIR-SHARE
How will you handle student use of Wikipedia in your classroom?
What other uses do you see of wikis in your classroom?
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The New Permanent Record
Steve Dembo: http://www.teach42.com/2006/05/12/audio-from-the-new-permanent-record/
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Kids’ Safety• We have a responsibility to teach our
students how to behave online.• Where do they learn how to interact
[appropriately?] online? • Where do they get online when blocked at
school?
Steve Dembo, Discovery Education
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Kids’ Safety• Kids can spraypaint anywhere on the Internet.• Are these tools evil in themselves or just being
used inappropriately?• Be proactive. Get your own account to protect
yourself & gain firsthand experience.• Ask your students about it!• Assume everyone is going to see everything.• Nothing is private. An alias only has minimal
protection. Deleted isn't gone.
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10 Personal Items Not to Share Online
• State• Gender• Age• IM name• Email
• City• Photos• Phone number• Street address• Last name
-Steve Dembo, Discovery Education
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Privacy
• Separate public photos from private
• Restrict MySpace and Xanga accounts to invitation only
• Use LiveJournal privacy features
-Steve Dembo, Discovery Education
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Questions Students Should Ask
• Can I share this with my parents or teacher?
• Would I want a college recruiter or job interviewer to see this?
• Could this allow someone to find me and put me in danger?
-Steve Dembo, Discovery Education
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Balance
• Good academic stuff should be online. But not personal information.
• Having a positive online presence is not a bad thing.
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PAIR-SHARE
How will you teach students and parents about the “new permanent record”?
How do you currently teach Internet safety?
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Review
• Teachers Reading Blogs
• Teachers Writing Blogs
• Students Reading Blogs & RSS Feeds
• Students Writing Blogs & Making Podcasts
• Wikis
• Teaching Safety & Responsible Use
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The Read/Write Web: Blogs, Wikis and MySpace. What
Should a Teacher Do?
Janine Lim
Links at www.janinelim.com
Email: [email protected]