Digital Tools : What use is a wiki or a blog in the classroom?

What use is a wiki? Well, it is a fabulous tool that allows users to interact and collaborate together. You reply to a question and rather than making many phone calls, emails galore or texting up a storm, you allow the users to think about their responses and to respond within a time frame of the creator's choosing. This has real value in a classroom situation. I have broken it down into the PMI format for comparison, as follows:
Plus

• Interactions are well thought out and less emotion charged.
• Responses can be monitored for unacceptable interactions. 
• All invited respondents can be viewed, allowing the learning manager to see who is not attending, or who is struggling with the questions.
• Wikis can be formatted any way that you choose.
• A wiki leaves a digital footprint.
• Learners are engaged in a format that is familiar and interesting to them.
• This is a learning experience for all involved, including the learning manager.
• Parents can be invited to attend, thus forming relationships.
• Allows learners to access anywhere, anytime.
• Connecting with others to bring a change in ideas or the position you hold about an idea. Debate can help someone to make a decision.
• Help is close at hand with a button, thus this causes the user to be more self-sufficient and in charge of their learning.

Minus

• Importance should be given to monitoring interactions between respondents for bullying behaviours.
• This format is on the internet and requires users to have an ethical and legal standard of use.
• Answers can be edited and deleted inadvertently. Though retrieval is possible, this is time consuming.
• Outsiders can interfere with the process.
• Can be limiting if you only use the basic wiki template.
• Relies on the internet and can be difficult if learners have little or no access.

Interesting

• Younger students have learned skills through previous experience with this tool and others. It is often expanded through ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) links. One example they learn through is by accessing sites like http://www.technewsworld.com/  These sites and magazines give information on groundbreaking technologies soon to be released or the impact and consequences of actions taken in a world setting by tech saavy users. Some sites and magazines give user friendly information. Some use a traditional method to get their message across on television.
• This is not a fad. New technologies are being rolled out to the public faster than we ever imagined possible. It wasn't too many years ago that the Mac was the big thing in schooling and a computer took up the whole room. They were expensive, only performed the most basic operations and were not at all portable. In 2013, you can carry several around, link to an internet provider through various means (wireless, landline and satellite) and the information you can store on the device is amazing. You can even store it in a cloud. The wiki is just one more tool in an ever-changing process of elimination that is the ICT world. The best remain and the outmoded become trash or disappear slowly ie. MySpace, never to be seen again...

Take a look at my wiki to see how I would apply it for use in the classroom: 

http://learnerdiscovery.wikispaces.com/

 This is a tool that promotes learning in line with the Australian Curriculum. For example, learners will develop 'text structure and organisation',they will be able to 'express and develop ideas' and begin to understand 'language variation and change'(ACARA, 2013, p. 7). It is great too if you want to save time and paper.
 There are also tools that can be accessed from other sites that make it much easier to use a wiki. One site that has these connections listed is http://www.teachersfirst.com/ontools.cfm

So, let's look at what uses a blog could have in a classroom situation. Blogs are useful because:
PLUS

• They create interest and creativity
• Easy to use and access
• While comments can be made, the site information is edited by the creator
• They are useful for teaching skills to the uninitiated ICT learner.
• They more than a personal diary and though limited in its application, can be a medium for information exchanges.
• Parents, teachers and friends can view the information. Privacy settings can limit accesses.

MINUS

• One-sided information and is dependent on the creator as to how factual it is and the reliability of the sources.
• The world can access the site through search engines if settings are not limited.
• No challenges to create high order thinking like problem solving and critical thinking.
• Time consuming

INTERESTING
Facebook and social networking apps are more popular with the young generation. Blogs can be used as a commercial venture, but most businesses revert to using a website with their blog as a secondary concern after they become popular. This site presents 10 good reasons why blogs are better than Facebook for building a business. According to Patricia Redsicker of Social Media Today, she has tested blogs against Facebook and she found that the stability and control you have on a blog is a safer option than the more socially popular Facebook. http://socialmediatoday.com/predsicker/476102/10-reasons-business-blogging-better-facebook-infographic

Maybe blogging is not a bad option to teach young learners, who once they have tried social media, will be able to expand their talents and use them, if they choose in a business venture. To the above post, some respondents commented that using both blogging and Facebook was the best way to go, particularly if you don't have time to post regularly.

Reference and Accessed sites:
Social Media Today. (2012). 10 reasons business blogging is better than facebook [Infographic]. Retrieved from
http://socialmediatoday.com/predsicker/476102/10-reasons-business-blogging-better-facebook-infographic
http://www.technewsworld.com/
http://www.teachersfirst.com/ontools.cfm
http://www.wikispaces.com