Exploring Wikis

Speaker for the day- Trevor Doerksen 11:00- 11:30
Virtual Field Trips- Mobility in Education. CEO of Mobovivo. Through Mobovivo he is trying to get the rights of educational videos so he can share out a collection of educational videos on iPods. This tool which so many students are accessing

A lot of his comments line up with the ideas presented in "Everything Bad is Good for You"- written by Steve Berlin Johnston. Students are not dumbing down they are ramping up and they want to communicate, collaboration and be engaged.

I am of the opinion that children are not losing attention span they are just becoming better consumers of information. They have been fed digital media that is built, probably not purposefully, on great pedagogical techniques. Students come to school having experienced good scaffolding and they get bored when teachers and adults cannot help them make further connections.

A qoute from Trevor- "There have never been more educational resources and there have never been more excuses not to use them." What's my excuse? I just need to find the resources so that I can use them!

Wiki article-
"Wide Open Spaces Wikis Ready or Not" by Brian Lamb touched on some interesting applications of Wikis. As a class we talked about multiple ways we could use our wiki. The way it is shaping up currently it seems as though we are building it up to share our capping projects. I think that is will be a valuable experience for us all in relating experiences.
When I think of Wikipedia I am often drawn to the book by Simon Winchester titled “The Meaning of Everything”. This book is the history of the Oxford English Dictionary and writes. The O.E.D. was put together by 89 volunteers (originally 147). The end result is what many consider a well respected resource on the history of the English language.
The Wikipedia is a more broadly based tool than the O.E.D. will ever be.

I started my own class wiki today at https://mrball.wikispaces.com/. I'm not sure how I will use it with my students but it has promise. I know I should go for the curriculum goals first but it's just so cool!