Wiki+Reflections--+Group+1

As I am not very tech savvy in regard to using anything beyond the basic internet, getting started with this wiki was confusing. While I did not really have the time to take the tutorial to really learn how to use it, I do find it useful as you can edit and constantly add to your writing. As the wiki allows you to communicate with others in a dialogue, the members of the group are constant engaged in communication as new ideas are presented and connections are made. When looking at this week’s reading regarding the use of Wikipedia, I totally support the author when he states that Wikipedia is one of the most important website out there these days. While I may not use it as my initial resource for all of my work, I do refer to it when trying to obtain a general understanding of terms and ideas as it provides a quick clarification with examples and details to support my learning. However as a teacher, it is crucial to teach your students how to use Wikipedia in regard to learning how to tell if information is true or false. While this may provide further exploration of ideas as students can take part in fact checking, it is also a tool that can be used for continuing education as students can experiment with adding on to Wikipedia sites as each page can be edited. By presenting learning as an ongoing event rather than something that ends, editing of Wikipedia pages can help students learn how to communicate with other authors, accept constructive criticism, compare ideas, and make editing changes. With this independence, teachers must still be involved as they play a role in promoting and supervising internet safety. Quote: "The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create a community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort," (Richardson p. 69). I agree with Richardson's statement. Allowing students to communicate and negotiate with one another is an important skill that most, if not all, of our students will have to utilize for rest of their lives. As far as I am concerned, the best work is achieved when you are able to work with your peers. If students are exposed to this sort of a group effort at a younger age, it is a wonder to think about what they will be able to achieve years from now.

Post by Holly: Are we supposed to leave our name after we write? Anyways, I agree with the comment above. I am not the best when it comes to technology and this whole 'wiki' thing is definitely an interesting learning experience! Have any of you created a wiki before? I think it's great that we get to "test out" these new contemporary tools while engaging in meaningful conversations about the articles and chapters. After reading the article by Tarasiuk, I started thinking that we (RED 746 CLASS) are basically doing the same thing that Tracy had her students doing. We are working on our computers to read, write and communicate in many forms using multiple tools and resources. I think it's important for all teachers to incorporate multiple tools and resources i nto the classroom. If we do this, then we will gain a better understanding of how all children learn and use those findings to guide us to better support the student. Differentiating instruction is something we have to to do in every lesson in order to meet the needs of all of our students. If we neglect using technology in our classrooms, we may be taking away the opportunity for some of our students achieve success. Look at Robert for example in the Tarasiuk article. Robert struggled to complete classroom reading assignments. Did this mean that he didn’t know how to read or was unable to make meaning of the school-based texts? With further investigation, she came to find out that Robert did like reading; he just preferred to read and write online. It’s obvious that all teachers should know their students, but I never realized how much it could help change the dynamics of adolescents’ work. It really made me think about how knowing your students will help teachers make responsive and meaningful changes to units and lessons. She was able to take out-of-school literacies and apply them to what they were doing in school to help these children like Robert be successful. Great article! .

Would you agree that collaborating is something that every child should be doing in their classrooms? After reading chapter 4 in the Richardson text, I agree that everyone together is smarter than anyone alone. Given this, is Wikipedia a trusted internet resource for students to be using? After all, the Denver Post “graded” Wikipedia by asking experts to review entries in their field of study and 4 out of 5 agreed their relevant Wikipedia entries were informative, accurate and a great resource for students. If every day thousands of people are having purposeful conversations online, then this is something that our children should be actively involved in. Through this, we can help move our students to a world where they have access to ideas and where collaboration and negotiation is expected according to Richardson. When growing up many teachers wouldn’t allow us to use Wikipedia or wikis in general. Did they have enough information to support why they wouldn’t let us use it? Not really. They were unable to give us a straight answer as to why it wasn’t a trusted internet resource. Richardson's text stated a couple of the major challenges of using Wikipedia in the classroom. One challenge is that it is difficult to determine whether the information can be trusted based on the concept that anyone can add to the Wiki at any given time. This challenge can be overcome if we teach our students how to interpret the information as being truthful or falsely written. An additional challenge of allowing students to use Wikipedia as a source is the context in which it is being used needs to be chosen wisely. I think my past teacher's who didn't allow us to use Wikipedia were looking at it from a one dimensional mindset, as mentioned in previously read articles. Some teachers may feel like the work is already done for you if you use Wikipedia as source. All of the information is collected and organized. Therefore, when I think about asking students to complete a research paper, the use of Wikipedia will not be allowed. I want them to learn how to analyze and synthesize information on their own rather than copying something that has already been done. However, that does not mean I completely agree with my past teachers. This is where the theory of new literacy is having such an impact on instruction. I've known about Wikipedia for quite some time and had a bad stigma of it due to never being able to use it in my research. Now that I am aware of its capabilities, I see it becoming an engaging tool I can use in my classroom. If our past teachers knew that wikis involved publishing, negotiating, collaborating and searching for the accuracy of written work, I bet they would have changed their minds, just as I have! The Luce-Kapler article connects all of the readings together by stating that to learn we must be able to connect new experiences with what we already know. Students need to start with their own background knowledge as they take in new information. When students make these connections they understand the text more and remember new information because it connects to something they already know.

While it may take more time to teach myself how to use these new web tools, I really appreciate having each one connected to the work we are creating. We are engaging in meaningful work for real purposes. If you turn to page 63 of the Richardson text, you will find Wikijunior. I’ve been visiting this wiki for the past couple of days. One of my classes is comparing languages across the world. I used the following link as a resource when planning a couple of lessons. Check it out. The students loved it!

[]

Something I found interesting while looking at our class' wiki tonight was the variation of approaches used by the different groups.Some wikis were written as independent entries, almost like a continuous string of independent comments. Other groups into inserting comments withing the writing of others'. I even saw that someone inserted a Voki (I wish I would have thought of something cool like that, but I guess that will come with time and experience). I think this variation in responses is a similar pattern that we would find with our students if we gave an assignment like this. That's where the beauty lies when we incorporate technology into instruction. It gives students a chance to express their ideas freely. I think we might have used different techniques due to our varying levels of digital literacy. Speaking of digital literacy, I fought for an hour with my computer to allow me to post on the wiki tonight. For some reasons it would not let me. Due to my gracious friend Holly, I was able to complete this assignment by using her username. Therefore, the edits completed on February 7th at 8:55, 9:38, 10:13, and 10:18 (now) were written by Chelsey.

Chelsey, Mary and Kate,

Check this wiki out for ESL. It's a good resource when administering the NYSESLAT. It would also be a good resource for mainstream teachers when it comes to ESL testing. Let me know if you are able to view the wiki.

http://theellconsortium.wikispaces.com/Testing

-Holly

When I first heard that we were going to be using a wiki for class this week, I have to admit that I was somewhat intimidated. I took a technology course as an undergraduate but for some reason, wikis were never covered. I do consider myself to be fairly technologically advanced, mostly because I spent several years working as a researcher for a software company. I like to think that I could manage doing a unit like the one described in the Tarasiuk article. I loved the idea of having students use a wiki to explore literature. I really loved the idea of the collaborative video book talks at the end of the unit. However, I couldn't help but wonder, how do I possibly begin planning a unit like this? Can I assume that my students will be able to take the lead as the students in that class did? I think a lot of teachers steer clear of using wikis in the classroom because it offers so much freedom and student control over a project. Especially for teachers without the technological know-how that their students possess, you have to be willing to let your students be the experts.

In addition, I particularly enjoyed the idea of having students contribute to the Wikipedia article about the literature that they are reading (or any other topic they are learning about.) This really gives students ownership over their learning through the ability to publish in a widely known, and respected, forum. In terms of using Wikipedia in the classroom, I think that it is necessary to allow students to use Wikipedia, at least as a starting point. When I did research papers with my tenth grade students, their first question was usually, "Can we use Wikipedia as a resource?" I was always hesitant to agree to this. After reading these articles and the chapter in the Richardson text, I will definitely be using Wikipedia as a learning tool in many different ways in the classroom. I have to respectfully disagree that the work is already done for you if you use Wikipedia as a resource. Whereas I do not think it is appropriate to use Wikipedia as a main resource, when working as a researcher, I often used Wikipedia as a starting point. It's a tool that our students are already using, so why not teach them to use it properly?

After reading the Eagleton, Dobler and Leu article, I think I take my internet skills for granted at times. I can honestly say that I was never taught how to search online or in a library for quality information. In other words, I did not have a teacher who walked me through the different strategies when evaluating online or print resources for useful information. I guess I taught myself or my parents taught me. What about any of you? Did you have a similar or different experience? As I was reading, I was asking myself a lot of questions and thinking of different ways to expose my students to the online and print text world in a way that would help them become successful readers of all types of information. There are so many components that go into evaluating information for its quality. If our goal as educators is to prepare these children for using accurate information in an efficient way, then we need to start by implementing some of these strategies for evaluation discussed in this article. Some may say they don’t know where to begin when teaching their students how to look for quality information, but it is easy. You could even use this article as a resource considering it gives some great examples like //[|www.yahooligans.yahoo.com/tg]//. When I first start my journey into evaluating websites, I will probably begin with teaching students how to evaluate the quality of a website.

According to the Eagleton, Dobler and Leu article, “Evaluating information is already a part of our lives and the lives of our students. When we encounter new information, we compare the ideas to what we already know to determine if there is a place to fit this new information into our current understanding” (p.162). Given this, I can see a connection across articles. This quote makes a connection with the Lawless, Schrader and Mayall article when stating that students with some type of prior knowledge typically understand and can recall more than those with little or no prior knowledge. Prior knowledge is crucial because it helps students make connections to the new concepts that they will be learning. I found this quote very interesting as it ties into the use of comprehension strategies. We are constantly reminding our students to use their prior knowldge to help understand new ideas and make connections. I rarely think of this in regard to learning how to properly use and evaluate information on the web.

-Holly In regard to the question Holly asked about being taught how to evaluate websites, I was at some point in my high school career; however, I don't remember all the details that were mentioned in the article written by Eagerton, Dobler, & Leu. Maybe I also take my level of digital fluency for granted. To me, evaluating the authenticity of an internet site is not a difficult task. This could be due to the fact that I am able to think critically and evaluate information. According to the Eagerton article, you have to teach your students how to think critically about a topic before they will be able to determine the "usefulness and truthfulness" of the content (164). It may seem like common sense to those of us who have been taught how to critically evaluate information, but we can't assume it to be such an easy task for our students. For example, it requires a lot of scaffolding to teach the proper use of a search engine. In response to scaffolding students' internet use and website evaluation skills, the Eagerton article emphasizes that "as with any good instruction, a gradual release of responsibility gives students the chance to develop foundational skills while they move toward more independence" (p.173). Students have to understand what words to use when searching, what URL's to stay away from, and what to look for when they initially open the link (welcome page, a sponsor, recent updates, etc.). Something the article mentioned was to teach how to double-check information on multiple websites. As adults, we do this all the time. Just this past weekend, I checked multiple websites to confirm the death of Whitney Houston, as I thought it was one of the recently-popular internet "death hoaxes" As we all know, those multiple sources confirmed the information was in fact, true. Teaching our student to utilize a skill that we see as second-nature, will be of great assistance when it comes time for them to evaluate the reliability of internet sources. I found this video on YouTube about critical thinking and thought it was interesting. []

What do you think? I thought that most of the clips were words or phrases that I have found myself using quite often in my reflections to the different genre studies each week. It makes me conclude that using Web 2.0 Tools in your classroom definetely leads to critical thinking, a beneficial skill to possess.

-Kate

So I am strill struggling with how to really use this wiki. Even after one week I still couldn't easily figure out how to post, so I hope you all can read this. Based on our discussions last week in class, and the readings for this week, I agree that there is a lot of teacher responsibility in regard to teaching students how to evaluate websites so they can be used correctly and effeciently. When looking back at my education through middle and high school, I don't remember spending much time learning how to properly use the internet. Probabaly because it was not used as much, proper techniques were not presented. As education continues to change due to the variety of instrucitonal strategies and tehcnology that supports them, as teachers we have to try and learn how to show children how to evaluate infromation found on the web. However, with evaluating comes critical thinking and reading in regard to finding and determing new ideas. With this, students have to utilize comprehension strategies inculding questioning, compare and contrasting, and visualizing to determine whether the information is appropriate and truthful. When evaluating these characteristics, "we want learners to weigh information carefully and wisely to determine its quality, " (The QUEST Model p. 164). What we have to remember though, is to be able to teach our students these skills, we as teachers have to understand how to actually use them ourselves. Acurate models and guidance from teachers is key, but not without experience and practice, which also requires time and resources.

Students today are growing up with the internet and technology in a completely different way than we did. I agree that I was not necessarily taught in middle school or high school how to properly use the internet or evaluate the information found on the internet in the way described in these two articles. However, students today seem to think every question can be answered in seconds with a Google search and do not often slow down to question or evaluate the quality of the information they are receiving. It is essential that we teach our students strategies to evaluate the websites and information that they encounter on the web. This is no simple process; it involves teachers making a collective effort to encourage thoughtful evaluation using critical thinking skills. The Eagerton article emphasizes that "teaching students to determine the usefulness of information found on the Web is a matter of instructing them to take a more careful look and their having the background knowledge to understand what they see" (p.165).

As I previously mentioned, I spent several years doing internet research for a software company and I can say from experience, it takes time to develop the skills to be able to choose appropriate search engines, select websites from a search engine hit list, determine the validity of websites, sort through and organize amounts of information while recognizing the usefulness and truthfulness of it (Eagerton, p.173). These skills are fundamental for proper internet research but I have to admit that it seems somewhat overwhelming to try to think about where and how to begin when teaching these skills to my students. I think too often teachers assume that their technologically savvy students are coming with these skills in place when in reality, they need to be taught to surf the web and conduct online research with care. The Lawless article suggests that "if we do not ensure that readers have an appropriate level of domain knowledge or we do not provide them with a suitable organizing structure prior to this instructional activity, we may actually be causing more damage than help" (p.300). Therefore, despite the fact that I may feel overwhelmed by the challenge of teaching these skills to my students, it is completely necessary in order to ensure that they are using their time on the internet in the most efficient manner.