Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Week 7

So I decided to work with Wikispaces.com.  The main purpose of the site is basically for you to be able as an individual to build your own...wiki space (ok so more detail, you can basically build your own site: how to's, a general share space, presentations in some forms, etc.).  Many people (me included) see the word Wiki and immediately think of Wikipedia.  There are a few similarities to be had (and in a few specific cases the pages pretty much look like something you'd see on Wikipedia).  The point of the website in education can take on a much larger role however.  I have previewed/reviewed a few Wikispace sites before and how teachers used this as a virtual classroom, some decided to use it as a post space for a class webpage, others truly saw the site as a way to extend their physical room, bringing out deeper collaborative ideas for their students and ways to connect to the community and digital world.

I can't begin to talk about this tool without mentioning educationalwikis, a HUGE site that contains an amazing collection of real examples of how it can be used in the classroom.  (The site also includes a great resource section that you may have seen in your MET classes before, which will help you with setting up your own site, navigating others, or just understanding what more there is to a wiki).

Since I am a little familiar with the tool, I decided during this blog to look at it from a PLC standpoint.  One way to accomplish this is that Wikispaces offers the ability to create a professional (or student) blog http://electroniclearner.wikispaces.com/home.  It works pretty similar to Blogger in a lot of ways, if you decide to set it up as a dedicated educational blogspot.  I can see this being just as effective as Blogger at building a PLN, communicating with your school, parents, students, etc.  If you want to build a dedicated class website http://bernadetterego.wikispaces.com/home this is a really good example of how design can really affect your site.  This example also does a pretty good job of segmenting all roles of your classroom (area for sharing works, student info).  However it is this part of the website that really ticks all the boxes of a PLN.  She does an amazing job of showing tools you as an educator can use in your classroom and ways to incorporate them as well.  It is Wikispaces like these that truly highlight not just how to teach your students, but adds to your professional repetoir when creating new ways to present, share, and engage your students as well! 

3 comments:

  1. Wow, Rego really designed a very user-friendly layout. Just click a button. Nice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah it is very impressive. Her site is my model for what i hope to come close to next year.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for sharing the ideas and websites! I love Wikispaces, I think they are very useful and for both PLN's and your classrooms. I've been wanting to make a Wiki for my classroom but I'm a bit nervous as to how 1st graders would do. I think it would take a lot of training and start it off easy, but very beneficial! Thanks for the ideas!

    ReplyDelete