How To Use Wikis For Business

“Wikis” have been around for more than a decade, but they are just starting to take off in business, making people more aware about their benefits. Wiki.org defines wiki as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.” The article I read was very interesting, providing us with important information about wikis, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. The article points out that “wiki” was named after wiki-wiki, the Hawaiian word for quick, and that wikis are essentially Web pages that anyone — or at least anyone with permission — can create or edit.
The most well-known example of a wiki is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by anyone who feels like it. It is an important source of information that many people rely on. If anyone makes an incorrect or inappropriate change to an entry on Wikipedia, others can automatically undo the changes, or edit them further.
Wikis are essential to use for large, multiple participants projects. It can be a useful took to keep notes, and share ideas among people. It is really easy for people to jump and revise the pages; therefore, if used effectively, wikis can be a great success.

The article I read mentioned how the Los Angeles Times created a wiki that it hoped would focus on the war in Iraq, and everyone was encouraged to rewrite it to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, the site was later spammed with porn and profanity, and was shut down after three days. We can’t blame to Times’ failure on wikis. Also, we can’t use a wikitorial to do a blog’s job. People have different opinions about the war; therefore, a blog would have been a better idea for that subject, than a wiki.

I think Wikis can be important tools to use in the classroom. Students can all work on one page, editing and adding information as they need to. Collaboration and teamwork are what make a wiki successful. On the other hand, if the teacher is looking for an exchange of views, wikis are not the best tool. Airing opinions, and carrying on conversations or debates, require the use of a blog, not a wiki.

Also, I think wikis are great for team projects, and a central location where the information can be viewed and edited by all students. Wikis are great project management tools for teachers to use, very cheap, and sometimes even free. Teachers can also manage and organize notes, agendas, and calendars for their students to read and follow.

In my opinion, if a wiki is to be used in the classroom, the teacher must take responsibility for its use. Students are to make sure that what they are editing or posting is appropriate and legitimate for the assigned topic.

I think I would like to do further research concerning the use of wikis in the classroom today. I wonder if teachers are taking this opportunity, to have their students work on group projects, where they can all participate, creating their own wiki. That way, they can all learn from each other, and learn to work with one another. Also, I would like to find out which one is more popular in the classroom, blogs or wikis? Which ones are teachers using more these days, and why a particular one over another?

This article can be found at the following link:

http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=142ENYJVOZTKUQSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=167600331&pgno=3&queryText=

Blog Basics

I chose my article because it discussed how teachers have picked up on the use of this Internet technology and put the blog to work in the classroom. The education blog can a very effective and essential technology tool in the classroom.
The article defined a blog as: a Web publishing tool that allows authors to quickly and easily self-publish text, artwork, links to other blogs or Web sites, and a whole array of other content.
Blog postings are text entries, similar to a diary or journal, and often include comments made by
people other than the author. Postings are often short and frequently updated. They appear on the web page in chronological order, starting with the most recent post.

The article discussed how blogs can serve at least four basic functions, including classroom management, collaboration, discussions, and student portfolios. Each of these function is important, and essential tool that has many advantages in the classroom. Classroom management blogs can help students stay updated by informing them of class requirements, due dates, homework assignments, and even act as a question and answer board. Blogs can serve as collaboration blogs, where teachers can offer instructional tips, and students can practice and benefit from peer review. Students can participate in cooperative learning activities, while sharing their ideas and suggestions with others. Also, a class blog opens the opportunity for students to discuss topics outside of the classroom. In discussion blogs, every student gets the chance to share their ideas and opinions with others. Finally, a blog can also be used for student portfolios. They can organize a student’s work, and become a digital portfolio. Students as well as teachers can look back at the work they did, and track improvement.

The article also provided information and steps for getting started on blogs. The steps that were given in the article are the same steps that we used to create the blogs for this class!

I think blogs are a really effective tool to use in the classroom. They are really easy to use, and require very little technological skills and knowledge. They can motivate students to participate in the virtual classroom, giving them excellent opportunities to read and write.

I would like to research some more ideas for using blogs in education. Some further research on first-person accounts for blog use in the classroom can be helpful, because one day, it can be me reading those blogs, instead of writing them!

This article can be found at the following link:
http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/blog-basics

SCHOOLS OPT FOR VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS

SCHOOLS OPT FOR VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

By Mead Gruver
November 20, 2007

Virtual field trips are becoming more and more reliable tools of teaching in today’s classrooms. In the past, the teacher and the textbooks were the only sources of information out there for students. Now, on the other hand, with technology on the rise, students as well as teachers are constantly relying on many other sources of information to learn.

The article I read proves to us how important virtual field trips are. It discussed The Grand Teton field trip which is one of several produced by Ball State University where students can visit Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon and Hawaii Volcanoes national parks. About 50,000 students nationwide tune in to each Ball State web cast, according to the university. Also, there is even a video game where students can pretend to be Grand Teton Park Ranger, and learn how to find critters and other animals.

To some of these students, that’s as close to National Parks as they are going to get. Not all students have the opportunity to go out and explore National Parks or recreational places. That’s why virtual learning is a big deal for them. Virtual field trips are on the rise, causing recreational visits to national parks to decline by more than 3 million last year compared with 2005.

Nowadays, teachers are choosing virtual field trips to save money, time and planning. With the use of virtual field trips, students can travel the world; visit a zoo or a museum, while they are hundreds of miles away sitting in their classrooms. Officials are blaming this technology for declining interest in National Parks. I think that virtual trips are a great opportunity for children to learn, instead of sitting there listening to the teacher’s lecture, or taking notes on a certain subject.

Virtual field trips are really important to the learning environment, but they should not replace the actual field trips that students need to take from time to time. Getting out of the classroom, and getting the hands-on experience, is an essential step in the learning process. Nowadays teachers are forgetting the fact that actual field trips are important too, and they are so into the fact that a virtual field trip can have the same learning outcomes. Although virtual field trips are excellent teaching tools, they should not always replace an actual field trip that students can never forget.

When a little boy takes a virtual field trip to the zoo, he can’t feel the animals near him; he can’t touch/pet anything. He will just be there, in front of his computer, hoping he could visit the zoo one day, for real, and not on a computer screen.

Don’t get me wrong, I think virtual field trips are great, and students learn a lot from them, but I also think that if there is an opportunity to visit the place, instead of the virtual field trips, that opportunity should really be taken into consideration.

I would like to find out how many virtual field trips used in the classrooms today, are replacing actual field trips. I would like to investigate teachers, asking them if they still have normal field trips occurring in their classrooms. With virtual field trips on the rise, the ability to go out and have an actual field trip is declining. I would like to know how teachers feel about that.

The original article can be found at the following link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071120/CULTURE/111200022/1015