Blogs and Wikis in Education Project

Amy Narquis
October 2, 2008
Blogs and Wikis in Education
1) Off the Meriwether Lewis Elementary School blog (http://lewiselementary.org) I found some surprising and very resourceful uses for a blog or wiki page. For example, not only does the blog have a “calendar of events” list, but each event has a link which opens up a new blog page with the description of the event and a mapquest.com link for directions to the location of the event. This would be extremely useful for parents to help them get to the appropriate locations for the various school events. This blog page also has a page that describes the curriculum the students will be learning. Although, I was not able to connect to the links with the actual specific topic descriptions, I’m sure any parent would be thrilled to have such easy access to the things their children will be learning. Finally, I visited the learnerblogs.org website and found a number of innovative ideas for using blogs in the classroom. My favorite example was having the students create an online publication. Like a class newspaper, students can participate in writing articles and updates and post them into an organized online resource for parents and students regarding classroom/school current events.
2) RSS readers or aggregators can speed up the process of finding newly posted information from blogs, wiki pages, etc. They can be web-based or desktop-based. Since it mainly presents new information, students can easily stay updated on projects, assignments or just general information throughout the school year. The easy online access would also be helpful for students missing class because of illness or vacation who want to stay updated on assignments or events.
3) A pro for using blogs and wikis in education is that it is progressive way students can connect and learn. In this age of rapidly developing technology, it’s important to keep up with technological advances and get students familiar with such common technology as the internet. Blogs and wikis will allow children to explore the internet in a safe and educational setting. Another pro is the vast amount of information that can be made available for parents. As I mentioned before, posting school/class events and listing curriculum allows parents to take a more active role in their child’s education. A con for using blogs and wikis is that the internet can be considered a luxury to some families. Teachers need to evaluate the standard of living in the community and of each student’s family before using blogs or wikis. It could be considered biased to expect students to perform tasks and assignments online when some students do not have access to the internet. A second con could be the common occurrence of technological difficulties. Even with advanced high-speed internet, connections may be lost and difficulties can occur with posting and other such actions. Although this could be a minor, temporary problem, it could still be frustrating and confusing for children.