Week 5 Reflection: Blogs and Wikis

Blogs have many possible uses in a classroom from class discussion on a specific topic or chapter, digital lab notebook, peer reviews of projects, and a way for students and teachers to connect and collaborate. I looked at many different teacher blogs and got some good ideas on ways to use a blog in the classroom. The "Endless Forms Most Beautiful"blog listed tips for students on how to blog and how to make comments. It also included a list of website sources and journal articles for students to read to start a discussion on their blog. I think it is very important to give students some structure and guidelines for blogging. I wondered if the teacher expected students to write a certain number of blogs and comments or if it was just an added part of the class to increase discussion and learning about different topics not direcly covered in class.

I looked at Dale Blaser's blog and noticed a blog on Noah's Ark Waterpark's new looping waterslide. There was a link to a Popular Science article on how the slide works. (http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-05/how-it-works-computerized-looping-waterslide) I had the opportunity last week to try this new waterslide, Scorpion’s Tail . My husband and I had been discussing how the waterslide works and reading the artcile was very insightful. After waiting in line for about 15 minutes and watching and listening to others go down the tube, I stepped into the plastic chamber and the attendant closed the hatch. I crossed my arms and had my hands on my shoulders. A computerized voice counted down from three and then the floor dropped out. I dropped down the 55feet chute and was going about 30mph to ascend the loop and out to the runout pool. It took about 10 seconds from start to finish and was very thrilling and disorientating. There is a lot of water and you really have to close your eyes for most of it, so it was hard to tell that you were really looping upside down at the 60 degree angle. Probably the worst part was reading the sign while in line that told you what to do in the case that you got stuck in the tube. Be calm and an attendant will get you out through the hatch at the top. Luckly, we both made it out just fine, but didn't need to do it again.



I would like to try blogging with my students. I like the idea of having them comment on specific questions on our current chapter. It will give students that like to have more time to think about answers to have a chance to answer questions when they might not in class.

The wiki page by Damian Braxica had good information on how wikis can be used in a classroom. I also learned that wiki means quick in Hawaiian.
I joined two wiki sites (wikispaces and PBworks) to see which site I might like to use. I used wikispaces a few years ago. Our school allowed teachers to link our own webpages to the school webpage and we used wikispaces as our webpage. Teachers were the only ones allowed to edit it, so there was no collaboration with the students. It was really just used as a webpage to list assignments, syllabus, and links to other websites. It is fairly easy to use and update. I do like the look of PBworks a bit better then wikispaces. It has been helpful to use PBworks in this class to see the potential of how it can be used.

Here are the links to my two wiki pages. I have not added any extra pages or links yet.

http://joymayer.pbworks.com/
http://biologymayer.wikispaces.com/