The Ups and Downs of Wikis

The world of the wikis is a very interesting and exciting one, but the journey to having one is a little more difficult. When I first heard we were going to have our own wiki I thought, "this could be fun". I soon found out that the "fun" of the wiki would quickly turn into frustration for me. I had a hard time trying to get things the way I wanted them and when it came time to add links and put in a picture, there were more problems. When I finally found out how to work the website and get things right, I was very relieved and thought this could be fun after all. I learned many things about wikis during this process, such as: they can be used as a collaborative workplace in your classroom, you can add links and pictures, there are many ways to set the safety features, and most of all, it helps your children with reading and writing. There are many different ways that you can use wikis to help your students in the classroom. I think the most important one is the fact that it will help them learn to read and write. Most of the time if you give them something to write about, like themselves, they will be more focused and want to do it. The same goes for reading, if the children are getting to read about one another then that might give them more of an incentive to want to do it. Some other ways of putting the wiki to use is to keep in contact with the families of your students and keep them up to date on what is going on in the classroom. If you have a classroom wiki that the parents have access to, they will be able to check in and ask questions as well. Before my next wiki I am going to familiarize myself more with the site and ask more questions about how some of the gadgets work. Hopefully, the next time I blog about wikis I will have much more knowledge and experience with one!

My First Blogging Experience

To be completely honest, I am very shocked that I am going to be a "blogger". I have always tried to stay away from creating one because I never knew what I would say and I really was nervous about it. I think that this experience will be a great one and it will teach me a lot about how to apply blogging in the classroom. I like to think that I know a thing or two about technology, but the truth is I really do not know all that much. This can be a very intimidating thing but I think with all the hands on activities it will make it much easier to understand. In this day and age, it is very important to know to use technology because everything is going to computer based programing. I am very excited to begin this semester and to explore the uses of technology.