May 31- Wikis and such...

Last week when we started to think about blogs and how they could be used in the classroom, everything my mind went to was actually more suited for a wiki than a blog. I love the ideas of wikis. I can think of many times when I was in undergrad where it would have been very nice to have a wiki to collaborate on. I had a friend who sent all of her papers to her mom and dad because they were English teachers. A wiki would have been very nice because just by using the history feature she could see what changes they had recommended.

It was a good experience creating a page on Wikipedia. I have read many things from there, but never created a page before. I think it would be neat to have kids create pages on there as well. It amazed me how someone was editing the page within 10 minutes of me finishing it. I really look forward to doing more collaboration next year with Angel and wikis and blogs.

May 24th- What a week!

Hey everyone! After the first week of doing classwork, I realized that it really won't be too bad. I have enjoyed doing it. I love doing collaborative work and really learn a lot from others. Now, I am very glad that I chose to do my online work in Blackboard. Doing a happy hour summary is a little more interesting in a group. When doing collaborative work, I also love how you can start with what you think is a great idea, and with input of others a great idea becomes an incredible idea!!

In class last night, we talked a lot about blogs and ways that we could possibly use them in the classroom. Many of the things that came to my mind involved collaboration on a finished product, which lends itself more to a wiki format. I think that I will really enjoy talking about wikis. I have never really thought that blogging is something that I would enjoy or embrace. I always loved to write my thoughts down when I was younger in a journal or diary, but I would never want to share them with EVERYONE! It is amazing to me how people are so out there. I also thought about what Bill said in class about how everything can be found once it is online, and I thought about how teenagers and young adults put everything out there these days. More and more jobs these days are looking at things like my space, and to be honest with you, I am not sure that I would be viewed the same today in my profession if some of my mistakes as a "child" were posted and available to read. I really think there is a need to educate our kids and students on this....

First Class...

Last night was our first class. We were given the outline of the semester with everything that we were going to be doing. WOW!! What a class this will be. We will be doing so much this semester in such a short time. What is keeping me positive about this semester so far is that we will be doing fun things, and things I am familiar with, so at least I won't have to struggle through a new tool. Since we will be so busy, at least the semester will go by fast...