Wiki+Reflections--+Group+3

Several researchers and practitioners have deemed wikis to be valuable and effective in the classroom setting. According to Luce-Kapler (2007), wikis are a type of "Radical Change" writing, a type of text with the following characteristics: changing forms and formats using graphics, nonlinear organization, changing perspectives, and changing boundaries. Tarasiuk (2010) uses wikis to keep track of content material instead of packets or worksheets. Students could collaborate to organize information. She noticed that students put more effort into their wikis than regular worksheets, probably because the wikis can be viewed by anyone and so ultimately students were writing for an audience. In novel study, students had to add and edit the official wikipedia page for the selected novel. I think this is an effective way to have students invest in their writing and their knowledge for the goal of collaborating and publishing. It also gives students a sense of ownership and authority over their own knowledge.

The Richardson reading made me realize how ignorant I was about the true nature of Wikipedia. I knew that people could make their own wikis but not that absolutely anyone could edit a pre-made and official Wikipedia page. If students can contribute what they know to a public knowledge base that is viewed millions of times daily, I believe they will become more invested in their knowledge and more careful about their writing to share it. Richardson claims that by using wikis, students learn to publish content, collaborate, negotiate, and investigate accuracy of information and writing. My favorite idea presented in this chapter is that of students collaborating to develop and online text for their classroom through wikis. Textbooks are not typically engaging, but I'm sure students would read content material if it was composed by themselves and their classmates. In this way not only do students explore the required content, but acquire research skills and prioritize information, separating profound truths from trivial facts. In this way, students can also decide what they believe is important about content material and supplement written text with images, videos, and links to best support their own learning needs. By having future classes edit and expand on these, the school can also save money from textbook purchasing and at the same time have consistently up-to-date material, which is especially important in science and social studies classes.

As an English teacher, I also especially like the ability to view revision histories of wikis. It is very important that students understand that writing is an ongoing process and not a one-and-done deal. This concept is better understood when students can actually see the process like the wiki revision history provides.

According to Tarasiuk (2010), when children work in groups and create wikis, they put more effort into their work than they regularly would on classroom written worksheets, which she believed was due to the fact that their information would be able to be viewed by anyone using the internet. In group wikis, the students worked together to build a collaborative site that contributed and combined ideas from each member. Tarasiuk also mentioned that the students updated the wikis often and used different internet gadgets to make their wiki mnore interesting. The way that technology is becoming embedded into our culture is incredible, and because these advances in technology are occurring so rapidly, teaching students about using things such as wikis is imperative so they are kept up-to-date.

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I like the idea of using a wiki for an ongoing journal in the classroom especially in relation to students sharing what they are finding on a collaborative project. However, I like kelly did not find many wikis being used to their fullest potential. I feel that alongside a blog a wiki could be a helpful tool to interact with fellow bloggers or followers. I also like Kelly enjoy that there is a feed showing revisions throughout the wiki process. I can definitely even as a teacher in the elementary level see wikis to be a valuable place to have students store their work. It would not only allow the students to edit their work but would also allow them to look back and observe their growth as writers over time similar to what Tarasiuk does in opposition to worksheets and handouts. Like Osmon stated above I also believe students would put more effort into their work knowing that others can read it openly. One thing I found difficult about using wiki's for students projects is that in order to not hinder their creativity it would be difficult to put a rubric or provide examples of what exactly you are looking for. With that said, I really enjoy the idea that wikis can be ever changing and that students can incorporate many multiliteracies. Furthermore this would be an excellent tool to allow those parent and guardians with internet access to see what their students are working on. After reading the Richardson article I feel that wikipedia should be used as a source if collaborated with other reliable sources.In one of the previous articles we read it discussed the importance for teaching new literacy skills in relation to the web. I think it can be a valuable tool to show students different opinions as well provide many opportunities for teachable moments regarding what is a 'reliable' or credible source online and what is not reliable. When reading the Luce-Kapler article I felt this was a key point when thinking of new literacies "It is crucial that teachers of adolescents accept the variety of tools that students use as their literacies to read, write, learn, and communicate". I also grasped the idea that students enjoy adding pictures and in some ways this can be seen as students using their prior knowledge and connecting text to texts, text to themselves, and text to the outer world. In the Richardson text it discusses the importance of making wikis easy to use through labeling. I really enjoy the idea of having a discussion tab with students after reading a certain piece or watching a certain video. It allows students to continue discussion of what they are learning in the classroom outside of the classroom. Students who may be sick for the day have easy access to discussions going on in class and ones that are continued when class is over allowing the sick students to not feel out of the loop.

Both Richardson (2010) and [|Luce-Kapler (2007)]  highlighted that wikis provide opportunities for all individuals to edit other individuals’ content about a specific topic on a webpage, and negotiate about the knowledge they should present. I believe wikis can be a significantly valuable tool for teaching or practicing collaborative working on a project, and help students to create democratic discussions about which types of knowledge should they include or exclude from that project. This collaborative work is also important, because it is not dependent on one individual’s perspective, but it depends on a unique perspective that all participants have to contribute and negotiate on. On the other hand, even though wikis can be significantly effective tool for teaching, we should not forget that individuals need to have certain types of skills (communication, writing, and content knowledge) to create a successful wiki page on a specific topic.

[|Luce-Kapler (2007)]  defined radical literature change and pointed out that students in her study focused on visual aspect of wiki content. Also checked some of popular online games’ (WOW, League of Legends) wiki pages, and surprised that there wasn’t an extensive wiki content for those games. This issue is surprising, because other online information sharing tools like YouTube has been used widely by computer game players. There are many game players who has over thousands followers, and they heavily use videos to educate fellow game players. I believe, even though wikis present opportunities for adding video or pictures to a specific content, some individuals see wiki as writing-based learning and teaching tool. Providing information about how to create entertaining and informative wiki pages might encourage individuals to use wikis more frequently and effectively.


 * For 2/15/2012**

[|Eagleton, Dobler, & Leu (2007)], touched on some topics that were previously discussed in class about the importance of teaching your students how to navigate the web in order to find true and useful information The difference between knowledgeable internet readers and those who are less familiar with internet searching is that the more knowledgeable are able to identify specific information straight from the search engine that they can identify as possibly useful, either through URL or search engines. The less knowledgeable may click any website that comes up in the search engine and may not know what to specifically look for in identifying a good site. This I completely agree with! An example I can think of deals with my mom who is slowly becoming a more avid computer wiz however currently struggles. If you ask her to look something up or if she tries to look something up herself she cannot find the credibly source that she is looking for. Although she knows what a credible source online looks like, if you do not possess the skills to use the proper words to search for what you are looking for it is about as useless as not knowing what a credible source is.

There are many ways to help students learn to access wed information, including strategies as well as tools. On page 167, the authors mention a specific function that can be utilized while searching for information on the internet, called Edit>Find. The truth is that not many students, or even adults for that matter, know what this function is or how to access it. Just today I showed someone (an educated adult) the function so we could more quickly identify a keyword within a research paper. Even I did not learn of this tool until just three years ago. I find it so important that teachers use tools such as this. Thinking about it, I wonder if there is any controversy over whether some teachers feel that this is a "cheat" to easily access information. From what I believe, it is not because it would be the same as identifying bolded terms in a textbook or using the index of a book to locate a page number.

Another way to get students to look more in-depth at the information they are researching, I thought, was to encourage them to think like "detectives" to help them figure out, in essence, if a website is valid. Teachers should teach the following areas in this detective work: I really enjoy this idea of detective to get students to critically look at a websites credibility. I think teaching students (from a young age) should learn the skills needed to see what makes a great website and what does not. Teaching this to students at different grade levels would obviously vary. The teacher may explicitly teach these, (APOT for an acronym?) use guided practice to help the students through the process, let them practice the process in groups, by themselves, and set their practice to work in a mini-research project.
 * Authority: Is the information provided by an organization, a single person, or a company? Does the website contain the author's qualifications or contact information?
 * Purpose: Does the website contain a welcoming paragraph? Does it seem driven towards sharing information, persuasion, or entertainment?
 * Objectivity: Is the information a face or opinion? Are there overgeneralizations or simplifications?
 * Timeliness: When was the website last updated?

Using a wiki or a blog for a classroom communication/information method may come to use very well here. If students are using their computers at their home or in the library to work on a project and they aren't sure about the credibility of a web resource, they may find help if they post the link to their wiki/blog with their question. The teacher and their peers can then make comments with help for the student. I really love the idea of collaborative editing with both teacher and peers working together. However, I think in order for this to be used in a positive constructive way we as teachers have to create classroom community with strict rules on the criteria for editing and commenting on others works because without these criteria the damage that could occur to a students (mentally/emotionally) could be detrimental. Also, during group projects, the student may be able to send web resources via wiki/blog to eachother, collaborate their link ideas, go through the APOT process, and decide what to use, discussing their reasoning. This way, the teacher would be able to see their methods of thinking as a group, praise group collaboration, and the group would be able to put together their information in a simple way. When I read what my peer above writes here I can't help but think about the questions raised last class about how soon can we use technology? Although I know it is likely that with time students will be immersed in if not using technology from a very very young age what about the few students who do not have access to technology in their home? For myself I am looking to teach in the city school district whether it be in Syracuse or NYC or D.C. there is a strong chance like Nicole and Jillian brought up that some of those students truly may not have access to the internet and that without that those students may fall behind or worse may feel left out and not connected with their peers, the opposite of community we as teachers try to create in our classrooms.

As [|Eagleton, Dobler, and Leu (2007)] suggest evaluation is one of the most important skills at individuals’ life, and it will not only lead critical thinking, but also help to save money, energy, and most importantly time. There is significantly high volume of knowledge at internet, and there is not much control over flow of the knowledge; therefore, evaluating the quality of web services is an important issue on all individuals’ life. Thus, as a teacher, I believe we should help our students to develop critical thinking and evaluation skills which will help them to differentiate useful or truthful knowledge from all other information.

The writers also suggest four evaluation criteria: authority (credibility of sources or publishers), purpose (what is the reasoning behind the information), objectivity (is the information free of bias) and timelines (is the information current).

Reference Goodman, D. (Designer). (2011). //Evaluation //. [Web Drawing]. Retrieved from http://www.newbookday.com/2011

Lawless et al conducted a study to determine the effect of prior knowledge on internet navigation focusing on the following questions: 1) Does a prereading activity aimed at increasing prior knowledge significantly influence a user's navigation on a Web site within that domain? 2) Does a prereading activity aimed at increasing prior knowledge significantly influence pos ttest knowledge recall from a Web site within the domain? For this study, the treatment group received a short pre-reading text selection in a traditional paper format before given access to the internet. After this, both the treatment and control group were given the same prompt for navigating the selected genetics website. After navigating, each group had to answer a series of questions about the topic. There were no significant differences between groups in respect to knowledge prior to the intervention. The study found that the control group used the menu navigational schemes for frequently. The treatment group spent more time on the website, paid more attention to visuals, and followed more embedded links. The treatment group significantly increased their knowledge scores while the scores of the control group decreased. The study found that pre-reading and prior knowledge before internet research results in more complex and nonlinear navigation and more time engaging with websites.

This study suggests that if teachers want to maximize learning through digital means, they need to make sure that students have adequate background knowledge. I am personally confused as to //how// prior knowledge results in better navigation skills. I don't see how a person who knows a lot about genetics is automatically better able to navigate a website on the topic, especially since not all websites have the same setup and organizational pattern. I suppose knowing more about the topic would help a reader better evaluate the credibility and quality of information, but no level of prior knowledge will benefit internet navigation for those who have little to no experience with it. While I agree that pre-reading would help navigation, I do not think it is a replacement for modeling and direct instruction on ways to search and navigate search engines and websites.

This confused me as well. Although I do understand the importance in having prior knowledge on the subject to help further decide if an online source is credible or not I do not think it inherently provides you with better computer navigating skills. That is unless your prior knowledge lies in dealing with technology. Therefore I feel it is important to have prior knowledge when learning about a new topic but feel it is not the most essential strategy. If you know how to find information (how to read to learn) and decide what is a credible source and what is not it makes it easy to relate what you are learning to things you already know yourself, to the outter world, and to other texts. Lawless and her colleagues highlighted the growth of internet usage at last decade. Even though I agree the notion that internet is one of the best information gathering tools (the best for me), I am skeptical about their data. (%60,000 increase at web content in decade). On the other hand, I definitely agree that prior knowledge essential for meaningful reading and proper evaluation. We cannot utilize any of Eagleton Dobler, and Lue’s evaluation standards (authority, purpose, objectivity, and timeliness) without any prior knowledge.