king23things’s Blog

Introduction

It is now time to create a website.  Websites are CENTRAL to becoming a full digital citizen.  Using e-mail is limiting and it takes too many e-mails to collaborate.  Think about it another way.  If your inbox is overflowing just with e-mails from the King community, how will you effectively collaborate with teachers from other schools?

Wikis and blogs are two of the more popular types of websites.  We are going to create a blog.  It will be the central resource for using  Web2.0 technologies and reflecting on each task (”thing”).  So far, I have used quizzes as a reflection tool for you.  Going forward, I want you to reflect using your own blog.

Wiki vs Blog

Both wikis and blogs generally follow a three-column format with a large central columns and two smaller columns on either side.  Blogs are chronological and collaboration is limited to comments.  Wikis are not date-based and people can make direct changes to content.  Both have a range of security features to maintain privacy and appropriate content.  Please reference the document I handed out at the beginning of the course (see thumbnail above)

Assignment

1.  Take a deep breath.  You completed all of the previous “things” without being left behind.  You have already been exposed to about a dozen “crayons”.  I don’t expect you to be able to master them.  Once you identify the “crayons” relevant to your curriculum, then we can work together to build your expertise.

2.  Proceed to the “thing3″ assignment and watch the introductory video.  Also click here to watch a video about pbwiki.

3.  Spend a few minutes looking at good examples of blogs and wikis.

• award-winning education blogs   http://edublogawards.com/2007/
• award-winning education wikis   http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/
• sample blog#1, blog#2, blog #3
• sample wiki#1, wiki#2

4.  Sign up for your own blog at www.edublogs.org using this convention to name your blog:

• xxx23 things  where xxx is your last name.  For example, my blog would be named “faig23things”.
• When you create your blog there are 100 different themes that you can use to customize it
• Time is critical to wiki postings, since they are chronological.  Make sure that your time zone is set to UTC-4

5.  Watch a brief five-minute  overview of Ediblogs at http://edublogs.org/videos

6.  Once your blog is created, post your first blog in response to these prompts:

• Reflecting on your initial thoughts about Web 2.0 and its role in 21st Century teaching and learning
• Consider the ways in which Web 2.0 tools might change (or have already changed) your professional practice.
• How might you be able to use these new tools to to engage today’s “digital learners”?
• Why would you want to? How might you be able to use these tools to support your own learning?