Week 5: Blogs and Wikis in the Classroom

Image from Wiley Information Systems

If you scroll into the ancient past of this blog, you will find a link to the first and only wiki I ever did with students. They created an Atomic Theory Timeline and I like how the project turned out. After exploring some of the other links provided to us through our current class wiki, I have decided that I want to go BIGGER next time. I want to make a wiki that will be added to each year that I do the same unit. I think this might be my Final Project and I have that excited "I-finally-figured-out-what-my-final-project-is-going-to-be" feeling welling up inside me as I think about the possibilities!

My overall feeling on blogs and wikis after exploring the resources:

1. In my classroom I would prefer blogs to happen in a closed environment, not out there on the world wide web for all to see. I want my students to interact with each other, not with strangers. Yet at the same time, it would be nice to invite experts into our conversation. I think the best way to do this is to use the blog feature within a Learning Management System like Moodle, edu20.org, or haikulearning.com.
2. Wiki-Wiki needs to be shared with the world! I would like my students to create content that is shared  on the world wide web. The challenge for me will be to find wiki hosting sites that do not require students to reveal their identity, much like the PBworks site we use for class. One challenge I face is that many of my students might not have their own email account and I have to figure out if there are sites that allow them to join without an email account, or if it is okay for me to get them signed up for gmail first (how do parents feel about that?). 

So off I go to explore some tools...