To wiki or not to wiki?

Wiki

A wiki is a "collection of web pages located in an online community that encourages collaboration and communication of ideas by having users contribute or modify content sometimes on a daily basis" according to Roblyer and Doering (2013 p. 223).I teach the sixth grade in an elementary model, so I chose a 5th Grade Wiki because most 6th graders, other than mine, rotate classes.  I love the page called “Creativity” that is full of links to games, etc. Another page that I would be sure to duplicate is the Digital Citizenship page. This page breaks down to "Don'ts" of internet usage and lets the kids know exactly what is expect of them. This will help to alleviate several of the 5 potential problems that Roblyer and Doering discuss on pages 214-216.

Widgets in a Wiki

One widget I would use in my Wiki is the Google calendar. It is easy to synchronize, and it is a real-time calendar, so if you change something, it will automatically update your wiki as well. The Google system is also linked seamlessly with many other platforms, which will allow you to edit it from most any device. This could be used in my classroom to allow the students and parents to see events and assignments coming up.

Tamara Calander

Another fun widget is Voiki. It allows you to chose a character (with many choices to choose from), give it a voice (which you can record if you want or type), and tell it what to say.  This could be used in my classroom to remind them of homework, help illustrate the mood a writing assignment should be in, or even just to make an announcement stand out on a webpage or blog.

Voki Test

Web-based Lesson

Although web-activities "are often time-consuming to develop and implement, and difficult to design in ways that have substantial, positive impacts on students' learning" (Chen, Lambert, & Guidry, 2010; Coulter, Feldman & Konold, 2000; Hannafin & Hannafin, 2010; Roblyer and Doering (2013 p. 238), in today's times, we don't have to search for long until we are able to find something that will satisfy the need we have with providing students access to web-based lessons. 

"Web-based learning has changed greatly over the past decades," said Roblyer and Doering (2013 p. 238) and this could not be more proven than to consider just how many web-based lessons exist today.  Here is a link to a site that is full of web based learning that I would use in my classroom. The site allows you to chose a specific topic to cover, and it breaks it down to a very detailed point. I could use this website to re-teach students that are still struggling once we have completed a lesson in math. For example, we are working on dividing decimals in math right now, so I could use this Math Lesson to reinforce the lesson, maybe in a different way than I originally taught it, which could encourage a better understanding of the material. This would be a prime example of using the online lesson as a form of enhancement as discussed by Roblyer and Doering on page 238.

Works Cited

- Roblyer, M.D. & Doering, A.H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into

teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.

- Chen, Lambert, & Guidry, 2010

-  Coulter, Feldman & Konold, 2000

- Hannafin & Hannafin, 2010

- https://wke-5th-grade.wikispaces.com/

- https://www.google.com/calendar/embed

- http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=10518429&height=267&width=200

- http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_6th_original.htm

URLs and Search Engines - Module 3

URLs

The term URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a fancy way of saying the website address.  By looking at the URL, you can usually tell a few things about the site before you ever visit it. The first indicator would be the last three letters of the address line, which tells you the domain designator.  "The most common designators are: .com (commercial site), .gov (government), .net (networks, Internet service providers), .edu (higher education institutions), and .org (non-commercial organizations)." (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p. 216).  The next thing that may be an indication would be the actual URL itself. For example, if I were to tell you that for more info about an upcoming event you could visit http://cahawbachristianacademy.com you could likely make the safe assumption that the event would be located at or sponsored by Cahawba Christian Academy.  Also, by looking at this URL, you could also see that this location is a christian school. Not all website URLs will be as "reveling" as this one example, but there are many companies and organizations that chose a URL centered around the name of their company/organization so that people can easily find them by doing a simple search in a search engine.

Search Engines

There is so much information available on the internet that companies have developed special searching programs, called search engines, to help us locate things.  According to SearchEngineWatch, the most popular "Major Search Engines" are Google, Yahoo, and Bing; while the most popluar "Metacrawlers" are Dog Pile, Vivisimo, Kartoo, and Mamma (Roblyer and Doering, 2013).  A metacrawler is "a program that uses more than one type of search engine at the same time to locate things" (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p. 219).

The ability to effectively use a search engine can be very beneficial.  It can save you time, verses digging around in multiple websites to find the information you are seeking; help direct you to places you may not have considered as a source before, especially if you use a key words search; as well as allow you to possibly find the correct URL for a company or organization that you didn't have a direct link to before.

Favorite Sites

Choosing only two favorite sites as a teacher is quite challenging.  The first one that I would recommend to any teacher is http://www.superteacherworksheets.com.  This site has so much to offer a teacher of all ages!  It has worksheet links for any subject you can think of, but my favorite part is the Generator section, which allows you to create many different types of worksheets specific to what you need. This website has all that Roblyer and Doering (2013) ask for in a website, including good structure and organization, clear text and/or graphic links, good visual design, and easy navigation.

My favorite wiki site is https://wesleyan-6th-grade.wikispaces.com/6th+grade+home. This site has great structure and organization with the menu on the left with links directly to each section. The text is clear, and the design is simple to follow. This site contains a calendar that allows the students to know what is going on each day, as well as additional details about each event if they want to know more.

Website Evaluation

Below is a video of a How to Guide for Website Evaluation for Middle School Students.