Why+Use+Wikis+and+Blogs?

2nd and 3rd graders share why they love our classroom wiki. media type="custom" key="3506156"


= = =**The Power of the Authentic Audience** = Students are not longer creating just for the teacher's eyes, to read it once in front of the class, or to have their work hanging in the hallway. They are creating for the world. Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, as well as students in other schools and in other countries can see their work. I also find that the students will visit the wiki and blog more to view their own work and the work of their classmates many, many times.

Technology is a Motivator [[image:102B3640.JPG width="182" height="141" align="right"]]
 Students enjoy using technology at home and at school. They are motivated to do work at home when they can utilize technology. Technology is a tool that will be around forever and it is important to teach students how to use it correctly. We need to teach them digital citizenship and the wiki and blog are excellent tools for this.

//My favorite quote from the MACUL presentation I attended in 2007 with Julie Myrmel and Diane Rich is this - "We are taking the students into the MySpace world, but we are going along with them."//

Peek into the Classroom
The wiki and blog provide parents a unique peek into their child's classroom. They not only can see what their child is doing, but can compare it to the work of other children. It gives parents a picture of where their child is academically. Parents are also more informed when using a blog and wiki. They do not have to wait for the weekly or monthly newsletter to get updates on their child's classroom. I have had only positive feedback from parents on our blog and wiki. Parents (and grandparents) can subscribe to the blog and they will get an email every time we update the blog.

The wiki allows collaboration opportunities within the classroom, school, state, country and world. The students are not just creating for the authentic audience, they are creating //**with**// the audience and becoming the audience as well. Three examples of collaborative wikis that I am participating in are [|www.winterwonderland.wikispaces.com], [|www.monsterproject.wikispaces.com] and [] We are also visiting the blogs of other classrooms and commenting on what we find. You will see the blogs we are visiting in the side bar of our [|classroom blog]. In turn we are receiving comments on our blog from classrooms around the world.

New Kind of Bulletin Board
Class projects are not just stapled to a bulletin board or hanging in the hallway with sticky tac. Class projects are displayed on the wiki or blog and are shared with family, friends, and other classes around the world. Visitors can leave comments which gives children (and the teacher) encouragement. The project gets more attention and in turn the children pay more attention to their work knowing that it will be displayed and commented on. The children will want to create more content for the blog and wiki.

The wiki can be accessed from anywhere.

Higher Level Thinking Skills
Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally from Tech and Learning Magazine http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670