"Wikis, Blogs, and Web Publishing" Final presentation
- 1. MCIU Course Instructor: Rich Kiker Final Presentation by Lindsey Davis July 14, 2014
- 2. A Wiki is a web application (a lot like a personal webpage). People can collaborate by making changes to it--adding or deleting material and information. • Creating a Wiki for classroom usage drastically reduces the amount of paper used in the classroom. All handouts and class instructions can be created on a Wiki. • Students love technology! Using Wikis in the classroom will get their attention! Students can collaborate with each other on projects—adding or deleting comments or material. • Homework can be assigned and completed on a Wiki. The teacher can upload the assignment to the Wiki and the students can complete it on any computer.
- 3. There are a number of websites to choose from when you are creating your first Wiki. Here are a couple of the more popular, user-friendly Wiki platforms: http://www.wikispaces.com http://www.pbworks.com I found that Wikispaces.com was fairly easy to use. The tricky part was having all of my class materials readily accessible so I could upload them to my Wikispace! Please feel free to check out my Wikispace at http://missdayday.wikispaces.com.
- 4. What is an RSS? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Basically, by building an RSS aggregator, one can get all the news, weather, and video feeds desired on one page! By adding feeds to the page, one does not need to travel to a number of sites for information. All daily or weekly information is delivered to the user’s RSS page! • Teachers can subscribe to feeds that relate to current events or to their curricula. Students can read this content on one site and on any computer. • Some students prefer to read non-fiction or news and may not realize that more reading means better readers! Teachers can subscribe to any kinds of feeds they wish to promote reading!
- 5. If you would like to create an RSS aggregator, one of the easiest sites to use is http://www.netvibes.com If you are unsure of which feeds or sites to subscribe to, Netvibes has options to choose from and great search engines, too. Netvibes is very user-friendly—it just takes some time to learn the ropes! Look for this symbol when visiting sites. This is the symbol for subscribing to an RSS feed! Here is my RSS Aggregator for the classroom: http://www.netvibes.com/annabegins#Daily_News_and_Fun
- 6. Another useful web tool is the blog! Blogging can be used in the classroom as a way for teachers to communicate to students, as well as an easy way to get students to use web tools to express their own interests! Blogs are like personal web pages. People use blogs to communicate information about nearly everything! I’ve recently seen blogs about cooking, crafts, pencils, books, and movies! Blog creators can post material at their leisure—some post a couple of times a day, while others post once a month. Blog readers have the opportunity of learning a variety of new things! One of the easiest blog platforms is http://www.blogger.com. It is completely free and is very easy to use. Another site is http://www.wordpress.com. Please enjoy my blog about baking at: http://bakingbookworm1.blogspot.com/
- 7. Here are some other ways to incorporate technology in the classroom… • http://www.animoto.com Create short videos for free to get students excited about material or to share information about yourself on the first day of school! • http://www.glogster.com Create a biography with bright colors, pictures, and video to grab students’ attention before starting a new piece of literature! Here is my Glogster about William Shakespeare: http://annabegins.edu.glogster.com/shakespeare/
- 8. The tools I found most useful were the Wiki, blog, and Glogster. I will be able to use my Wikispace page in so many ways in my classroom. I can cut down on my paper usage, as I can assign homework to be done on my Wikispace. I can also change the way I interact with and teach students by using a Wikispace. I really had fun with my blog because baking is something I really love to do in my spare time! Baking the treats, taking pictures of the process, and uploading the pictures and recipes was so fun! My Glogster page is something that will also be very useful in the classroom! I can use my William Shakespeare Glogster for all of my classes, as they all include Shakespeare’s material.
- 9. I had the most difficulty with the RSS aggregator because it was hard to find enough material that would be useful in my classroom. The platform was easy to use, but I see myself using some of the other web tools before the RSS aggregator in my classroom. I loved Moodle! I think it is a great way for educators to post all of their class requirements for online classes. It was also great to be able to log onto one site and see everything I needed to do for the class, including all of the rubrics. I had fun completing all of the projects and have become familiar with a number of web tools I can use in my classroom!
- 10. "Creativity Is Learning." Glogster EDU: A Complete Educational Solution for Digital and Mobile Teaching and Learning. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 July 2014. "One Account. All of Google." Blogger. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 July 2014. "Netvibes." – Social Media Monitoring, Analytics and Alerts Dashboard. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 July 2014. "Rss." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 July 2014. Web. 14 July 2014. “Wiki.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 July 2014. Web. 13 July 2014.