What to do about Wiki's

                After reading up on Wikipedia’s accuracy concerns and looking at other educational related wiki’s I came to a few opinions on the entire subject of wiki’s in the classroom.  First I want to talk about Wikipedia, I’m not going to provide a link, as well…everyone knows about Wikipedia (and if not, I’d be shocked).  I know that various sources such as “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms” have touted the accuracy of Wikipedia’s articles and how it watched over by a number of dedicated publishers.  With this sort of support it could be argued that Wikipedia is a viable source for students to turn to when needing to research topics.  However I’ve had a few concerns with Wikipedia myself and reading various articles about its accuracy such as the study done by The Guardian has not helped my opinion any. 

                The Guardian in 2005 asked several experts to look up articles regarding their fields.  The scores ranged from a 0 at the lowest to 8 out of 10.  While 8 out of 10 in my opinion is a rather good grade most of the scores rested in the 6 or 7 range, which as far as student education is concerned is too low for students to trust.  The problem with students receiving inaccurate information is not only that they will receive a lower grades on whatever they are handing in, but the fact that students have now been misinformed.  This just adds to the challenges that teachers have, since instead of a student getting the information right the first time, the teacher now has to take time to dispel the information and reteach the correct material.  Also, I am not just taking the word of these experts who I do not know either.  Once again I turn to my herps on the internet.    The page dedicated to turtles has a line in it that is false in regard to reptiles.  In it, the article claims that turtles “unlike most reptiles, stick out their tongues to catch food”.  While this is a famous trait of lizards, it is only a trait that a very few lizards actually possess.  When you break it down that turtles cannot use their tongues to catch food, nor crocodilians, tuataras, snakes (unless they’re talking about how snakes smell, but really that’s not the idea I got from the sentence) and most lizards, the statement “most reptiles” is incredibly false.  This has not been a passing error either, while yes I know I could go in and change the sentence I decided to sit back when I first saw it and see if it was altered by someone else…it never was,  this flaw has been on this site for several years now. 

I am not saying that Wikipedia has no place in the class room; it just should not be seen as an authority on the subject.  Instead Wikipedia provides students with a starting point for research.  The pages are essentially a synthesis of information based on a collection of sources.  Students can be taught how to take a secondary source and dissect it for its source material in to either do research themselves or be taught how to figure out possible bias.  Wikipedia it should be said though, is not the end all and be all of wiki’s.  The other wiki’s that I looked at provided great examples of a wiki’s use for education.

ITsopedia is a wiki that was created by George Mason graduate students to contain various strategies and tools for including technology in the classroom. I liked the wiki well enough, but what I really liked was the idea that teachers can come together on the web to share their ideas on how to improve curriculum.  One thing I have been told often by educators and people in my grad program is that no teacher is an island, and wiki’s such as this prove that point even more.  A wealth of experience can be gathered for new teachers, teacher’s facing new problems, or just teachers looking for something fresh. 

Another great idea for the use of wikis in the classroom is for collaboration (the original goal of wiki’s anyway).  I created a wiki as an assignment for another class.  The point of the assignment was to create a webquest on a wiki for secondary history students to complete.  My wiki revolved around connecting students from two different States in order to create an online textbook chapter on the Civil War.  I thought that it would be a great experience for students to practice working on an original project with people who live great distances away.  At the time in the class we were reading the book The Nine Shift, which spoke in great detail about how society was changing thanks to communication technology.  The book spoke about how jobs will increasingly be done not in an office but at a location of the employee’s choosing, and coworkers would be from all over the globe.  Employees would then come together on the internet (or other devices) in order to create projects.  This inspired me to create this wiki for the webquest.  Students were intended to be chosen from New York (where I’m originally from) and Virginia, and they would use wikispaces to communicate, decide the content and presentation of the product, and then create it.  I felt the idea had great merit, as due to the discussion board and being able to track the activity of each group member, teachers would be able to ensure participation along with differentiation in the assessment.

With the changes going on in technology, I feel each educator will have to decide what place it has in their class room.  For me wiki’s have a very valuable place, they just need to be used correctly just like any other tool.

Allways remember wiki-audiences

     Planet Math (http://planetmath.org/ ) is a wiki that claims on its home page “to help make mathematical knowledge more accessible”.  I surfed through this site, and found that it had a very different set up from Wikipedia, which I suppose is to be expected.  It’s not a list of words and concepts but from what I can tell various math projects.  The wiki, like most is able to be added to and edited by its members. 

However I have only one problem with this wiki.  First I have to say that perhaps my greatest weakness in school has always been math.  I’ve always been fond of the sciences, but math has always felt too abstract for me.  When I read that for my class I was going to have to review a math wiki, I was a bit worried that my…weakness was going to make reviewing this page more difficult than it really needed to be. Then I clicked on the page link, and read the mission statement I described above on their home page.  Immediately my mind jumped to Wikipedia and how its founder bragged about his goal being to make all knowledge accessible to all.  I began to feel more comfortable, until I began to explore the wiki.  At the very least the site organization makes it hard to navigate and truly grasp at a great deal of this math, without having a math background.  Sure it may perhaps be that the math is indeed accessible to me, in a sense that I can see and read it.  However without having a sufficient math background I was left feeling like I couldn’t make sense of it all.  For me, I felt like it would be like having Wikipedia written all in Latin.  Sure, I may recognize a “Pax” here and a “Diem” there.  In the end sadly an overwhelming amount of the information would be lost to me.  I felt that way with this wiki, as I would click onto an article and it felt more like I jumped into the middle of a book written in a foreign language.  If I cannot easily get the background information to work forward, then math has only superficially become more accessible to me. 

                The lesson that can be taken away from looking through this wiki is to always remember the purpose of your wiki.  If the purpose of a wiki is to make information accessible to anyone reading, it needs to be laid out in such a way that anyone can at the very least build up an understanding of a topic.  In the case of math, perhaps links to earlier concepts that are vital background knowledge could have done this.  If the purpose of the wiki is to only be understood by those contributing to it, then little worry to outsiders need to be given. 

Second Technology Lesson Plan

Title: Explorer’s Blog

Web tool: Blogs

SoL:  WHII 4: The student will demonstrate knowledge of the impact of the European Age of Discovery and expansion into the Americas, Africa, and Asia by:

a)  Explaining the roles and economic motivations of explorers and conquistadors

b)  Describing the influence of religion

c)  Explaining migration, settlement patterns, cultural diffusion, and social classes in the colonized areas

d)  Describing the Colombian Exchange, including its impact on native populations

e)   Mapping and explaining the triangular trade

f)   Describing the impact of precious metal exports from the Americas.

Extra Objective: Students will practice writing and communication skills, as well as blogging skills.  Students will be expected to research their explorer’s points of view and site their sources via linking to other websites.  This form of citation will also force students to be able to scrutinize internet sources for reliability and bias. 

Lesson Description:  Students will take the role of being explorers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  Students will then be assigned which countries they will be sailing for, and will be asked to create a blog where they discuss why they decided to explore the world, what they find, and the benefits for their mother nation.  Students will be asked to write 4 blogs for their explorer discussing the motives, the Colombian exchange, and triangle trade.  Then the students will be expected to post as their explorer on 3 other student’s blogs who were assigned different countries.  This is the bare minimum however, should a rich discussion occur, then the better for history!

First Technology Lesson Plan

Title: Online Fact Checking

Web Tool: Blogs

SoL: GOVT.5  The student will demonstrate knowledge of the federal system described in the Constitution of the United States by

a)            explaining the relationship of the state governments to the national government;

b)            describing the extent to which power is shared;

c)            identifying the powers denied state and national governments;

d)            examining the ongoing debate that focuses on the balance of power between state and national governments.

Other Skills: Students should understand that just because they read it on the internet, that they should not believe it.  Students will be able to assess statements and be able to check for authenticity, and know how to respond to a blog, and be able to link their sources to do so.  Students will be able to hone their internet conversational skills.

Lesson Objective:  The teacher is going to write a blog filled with a strong anti-federal government bias, and grossly inaccurate information.  It is up to the students to read and write a blog of their own responding back to the teacher’s blog, citing their sources via linking to credible websites.  Students will be doing this on their own blogs, instead of replying as this will prevent students from copying each other’s answers and sources.  Their posts however will be worded in a way as if they were specifically responding to the blog themselves.  Students will then be asked to make another blog post where they talk about their own opinion on the role the federal government should provide, and again cite their sources via links embedded within their text.

Judge Sources For Yourself

Well, one of my assignments is to find a blog to write about on a subject of my choosing.  At first I was nervous and stuck to the topic of education and technology.  I surfed around for a while, and while there were some decent ones, none really stood out as fantastic.  So I decided to not stay one dimensional and branch out and look up topics that are a passion of mine.  With that I looked to my oldest passion (even before my love of history) herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians).  One quick google search later and I found the blog of my choice “That ReptileBlog”. 

At first glance I was in love with this blog, because it is dedicated on sharing important care information regarding herps.  There were many articles I could choose from but I’m going to go with an article on a proper aquarium set up for semi-aquatic turtles as an example.  The information given is accurate even if I am not thrilled with several of the products that are listed to use on the post.  These items do have a link to sites where a visitor can see what the author means and even purchase them from a retailer’s website.  This is when I became nervous about this site.  I have around 20 years of semi-aquatic turtle experience, and have seen several of the products that the author listed, and have not been a fan of them.  The reason being is that some of them are not large enough to accommodate many adult turtles, or in the case of one product which I did use, can be easily torn apart by an adult turtle.  It was upon a little more investigating I noticed that all the links led to the same retailer’s website.  Granted it shouldn’t have been that hard to spot, as right under the blog’s title they wrote who sponsored the site.  I viewed this blog as a site with an agenda, to promote the purchasing of pet supplies from thatpetplace.com.  However to instantly distrust it for this reason seemed rather ridiculous when I thought on it, since all blogs have some agenda to push.  Anyone surfing around and reading blogs need to keep this in mind and learn who to take seriously and who needs to be fact checked.  The fact that this site is run by a business makes it a perfect candidate to be scrutinized as such.  On one hand the information needs to be factual, as misinformation would give the company a bad name and alienate itself from its customers.  However some information can be left out (like maybe…better products) in the intrest of directing a customer to purchase their goods.  Also in all fairness the blog does post less expensive alternatives, such as a large plastic tub as opposed to a glass aquarium sold by them.

This site also has other redeeming qualities that tells me it is not only and advertisement platform.  For one it has interesting articles posted for people who are genuinely passionate about the subject such as how people can be involved in changing laws regarding animal exportation, or new facts being discovered about herps.  There is also a page that has links to other herpetology related websites that visitors can go to for further herprelated reading.  It’s these qualities that I later looked for that made me a fan of this blog spot.  The author fits the criteria that I feel Richardson put forth, that writings are based on sources on the internet, which are linked to, and promote the creation of a network of like-minded people. 

On a final note, this blog while its links to products is nothing new, it did spring to mind an added use for blogs in the educational setting.  While I took Richardson’s point of making links as an idea to site your information, it also can be a great way to differentiate a lesson.  Links can also be used to explain much more basic information that perhaps the teacher hopes people in class already know.  This way, students who already know what “parliament” is for example do not have to waste their time reading the definition or history of it.  Students where this word maybe new to them however, could click on a link embedded in the word and be able to update themselves as to avoid confusion.  This to me just reinforced the usefulness of web 2.0 in the educational setting.  Students who may lack basic prior knowledge can be given a chance to keep pace with the more advanced students due to the use of these links. 

Learning About Blogs #4

Emmet Rosenfeld’s writings (not sure I want to call it a site, as he’s writing for “Education Week”) I would not call a blog from what I read.  Instead I would consider them articles, like one would find in magazines or newspapers.  By making this distinction I’m not accusing Rosenfeld of not being insightful or making me think with several of his posts like the previous writers have.  In fact far from it, as I did like his post on digital ethics and did ask myself some of the questions he posed such as when does technology in school cease to be a privilege. 

The posts themselves aren’t what makes me feel this isn’t an example of blogging, as he does have links to his source material throughout his various posts (even though my computer seems to refuse to let them work).  What makes it more like a magazine article for me is instead what is all around the article not what’s in it.  I should say what’s not all around his articles, which is outside links the author chose to place on his site.  The previous bloggers had a place for links that they enjoyed on their sites, be it blogs that they followed (or at least recommended), or links to groups that the author was a member of such as Hambrick’s church.  Its these links that I feel truly fleshes out a blog, since it supports Richardson’s claim that blogs are about creating a network of writers.  Instead all I could find connected to Emmet’s site were links to other authors for “Education Week”.  There is nothing wrong with this, but to me it makes it more of an article, and not a blog.  Of course this means that I better start following some blogs, and various other news sources that I can make links for, or I’ll be a bit of a hypocrite. 

Learning About Blogs #3

Scott Hambrick’s site I felt had a lot of promise, if only he continued along with it for his own personal use.  His biggest strength I felt was that he put a lot of his own voice into the blog.  The way I felt that he did this the best was his posts considering the birth of his son on his home page.  To me such side posts that do not concern themselves with the main topic (in this case yet again technology and education) of the site help invite the reader into the author’s life.  Other than this, it’s hard to describe how his voice comes through in his blogging as opposed to the other bloggers.  Maybe it’s just that I know he’s a former Mason student and a proud father, and I can relate better that way. 

                Another point that I enjoyed about the blog was that he included video unlike the other sites I have looked at so far.   The videos weren’t only a nice change of pace where I could be passive at gaining information from his site, but also is an example of an author utilizing additional tools the internet has to offer.  I see this change up on routine as a great way that a teacher could keep student’s attention.  Scott himself even makes mention to how if a student is not invested in a class, then it doesn’t matter if you include twitter or blogging, they still won’t get that much out of the class.  I really agree with his point there, and think the addition of videos and any other tools for the web can help engage students.  For example if a teacher only assigns readings from blogs and twitter feeds, then expects students to only write in response, there really hasn’t been a big change in engagement.  A teacher at this point may as well assign text book reading and papers to be written.  In the end it’s still a traditional assignment, only using the internet instead of paper.  Sure it makes handing in homework easier on the teacher, and opens up their resources for students to read, but engagement really may not be altered that much. 

Learning About Blogs #2

David Warlick’s blog at first was not for me.  It took me a little while to really appreciate it for what it was.  Unfortunately I was looking at it from the point of view Will Richardson gave in his book Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts: and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms maybe a little too much.  Richardson describes true blogging as an author writing about a topic using information found from various internet sources and leaving links to these sources.  I surfed around several of his posts, and did not find any examples of this.  Instead I found posts on his thoughts in regards to how technology is changing our lives, and its impact on education.  However while it may not often link (or at all from what I looked around) to sources, he did at least think deeper then events of the day.  His topics focused mostly on education and technology, his most recent blogs for example were about America’s confidence in the education system and how the children today are involved in video games with constantly changing rules.  I enjoyed these topics as they were written well and seemed to be more thought provoking for the reader, then just a soapbox for the author. 

The other interesting thing about blogs is what a person can tell about the author by visiting the site.  First is the obvious, which is what topics does the author usually bring up.  But then there are the added things that Warlick has on his site, such as his “blog roll”, the part of his site that links to other blogs that he recommends.  Each of these blogs all revolve around the same topic he writes about, how technology can (or I argue should) affect education.  This shows that this is not just some minor interest of Warlick, but instead a major passion of his.  It also gives him more credibility on the subject in my opinion, because while he may not site often in his posts to other authors, it shows that he has researched and read up on the topic.  By following these other blogs, he is continually updating himself, and if he’s like me reading posts and giving serious thoughts to what other authors have to say.  These other authors in turn may have an influence on his writing. 

Another source of information on Warlick’s interests is his “Posterous Feed”, which has links to various articles on the internet, not blogs.  These articles mostly center around science based topics, such as astronomy to once again education.  Like I mentioned before when it came to Warlick having other blogs promoted on his site, these links reinforce not only his passions, but give you the impression that he is reading them as well, showing how well versed he is on these topics. 

Warlick’s site is a great example of how connected information can become thanks to the internet.  I can start out reading up on Warlick’s opinions on education, then easily link hop to learn about how scientists have found a planet they describe as being composed of diamond.  I found that article as interesting, as it was random for his site.  This interconnection of course continued because not only have I supplied a link to the article above, but when I first read about the expensive planet I was on AoL instant messenger.  The first thing I actually did do was send the article to friends of mine who I knew would enjoy the article as well.  I wasn’t even thinking about how Richardson spoke about how true blogging creates a network of information.  I read the article and just knew my friends would love it and had to share it.  In this case I feel that Warlick’s site is a successful example of a blog.