Day+2+-+Blogs+and+Wikis

Day two assignments for class: [|**http://blogsavvy.net/how-not-to-use-blogs-in-education**] "How NOT to use Blogs in Education"
 * __Four articles about wikis and/or blogs in education__**

James Farmer, an Austrailian educator, consultant, and technologist gives a few pieces of advice about the common mistakes that educators use when they try to use blogs in an educational setting. He tries to summarize a report that can be found at http://incsub.org/blog/2005/blogs-anywhere-high-fidelity-online-communication. The major points are as follows:
 * 1) Never never approach blogs as discussion boards, listservs or learning management systems - you will be trying to use the blog as something it is not meant to be.
 * 2) Group blogs are a bad idea and don’t work - blogs are really meant to be used by individuals.
 * 3) Don’t try and force blogging into something else - blogs should be stand alone enterprises; not something used within another platform such as Moodle.
 * 4) Ignore RSS at your peril - without RSS, you are counting on people to check your blog everyday to see if there has been something added. The RSS feed informs people that you have posted and gives them chance to go there and take a look (and hopefully to repsond).

Farmer has part two of this article (or blog post) [|How you SHOULD use blogs in education] where he discusses some best practice ideas.
 * 1) You must incorporate blogs as key, task driven, elements of your course - don't just turn the students loose and say "Use a the blog site" Give them something very specific to do with the blog site.
 * 2) You should use assessment tasks that incorporate subversion - I haven't figured out just what he means by "subversion", but he recommends that you not require a specific number of words in each post or even that you must post a large number of times. Give the kids some lattitude, some modicum of freedom of expression.
 * 3) You should use blogs for what they are good for - use a blog to help people publish their work and represent themselves on line. This is a great way to get the kid who does not want to speak up in class to contribute to a class discussion.
 * 4) Use proven and effective blogging tools - do some research and find out what is out there. Find the tools that fit your needs the best.

"The Education Blogosphere: Blogs and Wikis" http://www.aasa.org/publications/content.cfm?ItemNumber=2824

The article appeared on the American Association of School Administrators website. This is a good thing, because if the administraotrs don't know what these things are, there is no way we are going to get to use them in our schools. This is a basic introductory article that explains what blogs and wikis are in terms that even administrators can understand. It points the reader to a couple of examples of blogs and wikis to show the different uses of the two technologies.

"Teachers told to leap out of textbook time warp" http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/teachers-told-to-leap-out-of-textbook-time-warp/2006/07/31/1154198073361.html

An article from Australia about the problems getting Web 2.0 tools out in the classroom. It seems they have spent the last 10 years getting teachers to use these tools but keeping the technology out of the hands of the students. There is a strong push back from the old guard - people who want the kids sitting down and being lectured to. It sounds like their biggest hang up is what to do with kids who access inappropriate materials - but hasn't that always been a problem?