Post - The second

Ok this post is slightly after a week (sorry Monty), but today I wanted to reflect on the esteemed 'wiki'. Oh yes... I've moved on from the wonders of blogging and have reached bigger and better things.

So what's the difference between a blog and a wiki?

Well the main difference is that a blog is something that is individual. Although a blog is not private, (as I discussed in post the first it can be read by anyone), it can only be edited by one person. A wiki is therefore something that many people can edit, add to and control if they have access to the site.

So What?

Yes I've asked the question so close to our hearts concerning the dreaded 'M' word! Why are they useful and who could use them?

They are an ideal tool to use in a classroom for collaborative learning. It is a tool ideal for projects that different children can add to, whether that be pictures, text, sounds or videos. Not only is it useful for children but also perhaps for teachers, (provided they are aware of how to use them). Collaborative planning is an activity that most teachers are involved in. So rather than having to organise meetings to plan collaboratively why not just add bits to plans, comment or change things from your own home? Indeed I am using a wiki to undertake the dreaded bean investigation with my group so we o not have to try and coordinate lots of meetings.

I think perhaps the main problem with this idea is the fact that it removes direct communication face to face directly out of the picture. So perhaps whilst this idea is good in principle, it may prove more time consuming as discussions cannot be had quickly and, let's face it, it would seem a tad anti social and take away teacher to teacher communication that is so vital in surviving the profession.

Despite this it would seem that a wiki can indeed be useful. Perhaps one of the most famous wikis around at the moment is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a fantastic source of information although the fact that anyone can edit it means that each entry looked up has to be scrutinised carefully by the reader as not every source is reliable! Listeners of Radio One will know that the Scott Mills page on Wikipedia is a complete fabrication!

Post - the first!

And so begins the beautiful journey of blogging. As a blogging 'virgin' it seems like a rather daunting task to create a new blog from scratch and everyone seems to be scurrying along with theirs at about one hundred miles an hour! After all, isn't a dashboard something to be found in a car? Or is my knowledge of the motoring world as remote as my knowledge of the mystical realms of the 'blogosphere'?

However; blogs seem to be becoming a really useful tool within the classroom environment and this is obviously an aspect of ICT that I will need to get to grips with. I think that the ownership that children can have over their own blogs is a fantastic idea and gives them the opportunity for choice that is so important. The idea that the blogs can be read all over the world perhaps gives children the motivation to be aware of what they are writing and how important it is to present their work carefully and effectively. Children are surrounded by the world wide web so I think that allowing them to create their own corner of it is a brilliant idea to explore the world of the internet and to see how easy it is to post things onto it. This may also help them to think critically about what they read on the Internet. After all if they are able to post whatever they like then so are other people.

Perhaps an aspect of blogging that I had not considered is how useful it can be from a teacher's perspective. On class trips, for example, they can be used to send updated information and photos back to the school and to parents to keep people up to date with what's going on. The same can be said for sports teams for posting scores and reviews of matches.

The issues about child protection however have to be considered when allowing children loose on their blogs or creating blogs for the school. It therefore seems important to disguise photos and conceal identities. It may also be a better idea to make their blogs secure so only certain people can access the blogs with a password. This however seems to be a bit of a shame. By only allowing certain people to view the children's blogs it would seemt o defeat the whole purpose of why they might be blogging in the first place!

This therefore concludes post, the first. I have now embarked on the voyage of blogging. With the help of the trusty dashboard... off we go!