Tweet tweet, twitter twitter

I've heard of twitter on numerous occasions in the past and I always wondered what the fuss was all about. Part of my curiosity comes from the fact I never used twitter until just a few months ago. Also curious was the name "twitter". Was it a play on the word "twit"? Is this a tool for those of reduced intelligence?

My ignorance has been replaced by an appreciation for this very popular and extremely useful web 2.0 tool. What is twitter? Twitter describes itself as, “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” (Mashable.com) Here is my story...


The Learning Process

My own personal experience has gone from shock (I have to get a twitter account?) to disbelief (I have to follow twenty people on twitter!), to anger (how many tweets can TSN give me each day?) to enlightenment (it is useful when I follow certain people!).

Early on, I didn't do any research into the how-to and do's & don'ts of twitter, I merely signed up and chose various people to follow. Here is a summary of those I chose:
1) My instructor and classmates
2) Two poker professionals and one poker commentator
3) The Sports Network
4) Leaders in their field (Steve Jobs of Apple, Dana White of the UFC)
5) Survival expert Bear Grylis (Man vs Wild)
6) Jimmy Kimmel (best late night show)
7) iTunesTrailers
8) My sister
9) Jeremy Piven (hilarious in Entourage)
10) CNN

Only lately (primarily due to this blog entry), have I begun to seriously research twitter. As twitter is extremely popular, there are mounds of information available online and in scholarly publications. Here is a summary of the sources I found to be useful to my learning.

Commoncraft (old faithful) offers a great video explaining the concept behind twitter and puts forth some reasons why twitter is so popular with so many people. Mashable.com was another great site that offers "The twitter Guide Book", a collection of explanations, links, tips, definitions, and uses all related to twitter. If you want to really get into twitter and use it to its maximum, this is a great site to check out. Make sure you have some time as there is a lot of information there!

I also found some useful scholarly articles that offer sound advice and practical applications for twitter in an educational environment. These include Kate Messner's "Pleased to Tweet You", Jennifer Demski's "Tweets for Teachers", and William Ferriter's "Why Teachers Should Try Twitter".

I now have a solid understanding of twitter and its potential uses and drawbacks, something that I did not have when I first signed up and started using it.


My Personal Learning

Early on, I began to realize that some people tweet about the dumbest things. I don't know why people would choose to follow certain "celebrities" unless they were really bored or maybe a stalker. I also began to realize that some news oriented organizations sent out an endless barrage of tweets. I am a bit of a news hound and I also like my sports, but CNN and TSN overloaded me with tweets. There were too many to even skim and scan and I have since stopped following both of these organizations. These early observations made me rather skeptical of twitter and I doubted its usefulness to me.

Fortunately, some positive changes occurred that caused me to reconsider my earlier thoughts about twitter. First, I stopped following those few people/groups that either sent me crap or sent me hundreds of tweets. Secondly, I started looking at those people who sent me the more interesting and useful tweets, specifically at who they were following, in order to find more like-minded people that I could follow. I even went so far as to look within Classroom 2.0 and Twitter4Teachers for others to follow (I think I found some good ones!) I even checked out whoshouldifollow.com, a site that helps you find people to follow. I never used it but I guess it is an option for finding more people to follow.

Another useful aspect to twitter I discovered is the use of hashtags (#). By assigning a specific hashtag or following a specific one (I did this and it really opens up the amount of useful information avaialble via twitter) it makes it so much easier find or allow others to find information on a various topic. One of the references I used in preparation for writing this blog post came to me on twitter via a hashtag (thanks Joanne!).

Am I on the right track?? I think so. I am getting more and more "useful" tweets now and those tweets I receive with helpful links end up getting bookmarked on Delicious. I have been getting more followers (12 now) and some of them I don't know at all! I'm hoping that they have received some of my tweets and decided to follow me because they found them to be useful.

Whether I continue using twitter will depend on my ability to keep sharing useful information and in turn receiving valuable information from those I follow. Considering the following statistics via Wikipedia, I will have to remain vigilant to ensure that most of the tweets I receive have some value to me:

Content of tweets via Wikipedia:

Content of Tweets according to Pear Analytics.
San Antonio-based market research firm Pear Analytics analyzed 2,000 tweets (originating from the US and in English) over a 2-week period from 11:00a to 5:00p (CST) and separated them into six categories:[39]
Pointless babble - 41%
Conversational - 38%
Pass-along value - 9%
Self-promotion - 6%
Spam - 4%
News - 4%[39]




Twitter and Teaching & Learning

I have learned of some amazing possibilities for using twitter recently and I want to share some examples of its use with you.

The first is a theme common to many web 2.0 tools: networking. The ability to connect, share, collaborate and pose questions with a group of like-minded individuals is huge. The nice thing is, once I have established a strong network, information comes to me on a regular basis. I can quickly click links from each tweet and save the useful information for another day. William Ferriter in Why Teachers Should Try Twitter explains that "... educators who use this tool to build a network of people whose Twitter messages connect to their work, Twitter becomes a constant source of new ideas to explore".

Jennifer Demski in Tweets for Teachers discusses the importance of "new ideas" further by discussing how twitter can be used to fight complacency in the teaching profession. She mentions a principal who asked his staff about barriers to technology integration at their school. The response from one of the teachers was startling: "We, the staff, are a huge stumbling block. We get complacent [thinking] that we don't need this new stuff, when it's exactly what we need". Twitter can certainly help teachers find "new stuff".

A second potential use for twitter is in staff meetings or professional development sessions. For example, the principal who posed the question about technology integration to his staff, decided on this question by using Twtpollto present five possible topics for discussion for that portion of the meeting. The effect was twofold. Staff received an introduction to twitter and secondly the meeting was transformed from the typical "top down" transfer of information into an inviting and active meeting that had a high level of participation. The principal summed up his experience with this statement:

"If I were to present the same question in a traditional staff meeting, I'd be met with blank stares. (no kidding) I was hoping that teachers would see this as relevant to the classroom; by using twitter they might get great feedback from a student who would never say anything". What a great example!!

Next, Kate Messner in Pleased to Tweet You offers up a number of great ways to use twitter in the classroom. Here are my favourites:
1. Creating book recommendations in 140 characters or less
2. Following experts in a field of study (i.e. Canadian History)
3. Keeping up with current events
4. Following the author of a novel being read in class (the author may tweet you as well)
5. Interacting with other classes from other parts of the world.

Lastly, I have thought up some other uses for twitter that I could see myself using. The first is using tweets on field trips to keep friends, staff, and parents up to date on things. I remember a trip to Vietnam with a group of students and what a pain it was to find a computer (NOT easy once off the beaten track) in order to update a travel blog. A tweet from a mobile phone would have been much easier. The same concept could apply to sports teams traveling to out of town tournaments; an occasional tweet to pass on scores, upcoming games or even what time the team is scheduled to arrive home would be so easy and well received I believe.


Conclusion

I won't be using twitter in the "social" sense. Rather, I do see myself using twitter to improve as a teacher. This is what makes twitter appealing to me. The ability to "network" with like-minded people in order to share resources, start discussions, pose questions, and provide answers. My network is growing and over time it will increase in size as well as improve in quality.

I started this odyssey as a total novice, a bit reluctant to get involved with twitter. I now consider myself an informed user, knowledgeable about some of the great ways to use twitter in order to improve teaching and learning in the classroom. Quite a good transition over the last three months I must say!


References

Demski, J. (2010) Tweets for Teachers. T H E Journal. February, Vol. 37, Issue 2, p. 16-18

Doggett, Laura (2009). Nine great reasons why teachers should use Twitter. Retrieved from http://lauradoggett.com/2009/03/nine-great-reasons-why-teachers-should-use-twitter/ (from Joanne DeGroot via twitter)

Ferriter, W. (2010) Why Teachers Should Try Twitter. Educational Leadership. February, Vol. 67, Issue 5, p. 73-74

5 Ways to Share Images on Twitter. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/05/19/twitter-share-images/

Hashtags. Twitter Fan Wiki. Retrieved from http://twitter.pbworks.com/Hashtags

Messner, K. (2009) Pleased to Tweet You. School Library Journal. December, Vol. 55, Issue 12, p. 44-47

Richardson, W. (2009) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press

The twitter Guide Book. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

Twitter in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/twitter

Wikipedia.org

Join the Collective Via Social Networking

Introduction

Another week... another post about my adventures in Web 2.0. This weeks topic is not about one specific tool per say but rather a look at a theme: Social Networking. What is this?? Social Networking refers to the creation of a group (network) of people in order to share common interests and/or to re-kindle/maintain relationships. Most social networking sites are web-based thus allowing interactions to occur via the internet.

There are many social networking sites out there to choose from but here are some of the more popular ones: Facebook, MySpace, Nexopia, Friendster, LinkedIn, Bebo, and Twitter.

Social networking is quickly becoming the most popular way for people to connect and communicate with their friends and peers. Check out the following stats:
1. 35% of American adults have a profile on a social network site (Boyd, 2009)
2. MySpace: The 100 millionth account was created on August 9, 2006 in the Netherlands (Wikipedia, 2009)
3. Facebook: The website currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide. (Wikipedia, 2009)

Some people have gone so far as to call the current generation of teens and young adults "Generation F", also known as the facebook generation. (Hamel, 2009) Because of facebook and many other social networking sites, there is a cultural shift occuring in regard to how people "connect" with one another. In the 1960's and 70's, people connected at community dances and religous functions. In the 1980's and 90's the mall became the place to connect and be seen. In the 21st century, more and more people and connecting and meeting online. A cultural shift indeed!


The Learning Process

Being a part of a social network has been a new experience for me. Prior to starting this course, I wasn't a member of any online social network. My hands-on learning has been based on my memberships in facebook, twitter, and Classroom 2.0 (a Ning network) all of which I joined in January of 2010. I have been active on these sites on at least a weekly basis in order to live the experience and grow my knowledge and understanding of each sites usefulness and limitations.

My knowledge has also been enhanced by numerous videos, blog posts, and writings that have given me useful nuggets of information along the way. Specifically, commoncraft created a video that offers a great introduction to the concept of social networking. Danah Boyd's article "Social Media is Here to Stay... Now What?", explains the premise behind social networks while offering a brief history of their creation and evolution. She also goes on to explain how adults and teens use social networks differently and how these networks are significantly "reshaping" our public lives.

There are many, many articles available of the "how-to" and "do's & don'ts" genre regarding social networks. Two of the better ones that I have came across included Should Teachers Be "Friends" with Their Students Online? (Mcconchie, 2010) and Guidelines for Educators Using Social and Educational Networking Sites (Blue Skunk Blog). Both offer practical, straightforward, and useful advice.


My Personal Learning

Prior to my current experiences with social networks, I really didn't understand why people would spend so much time on facebook and twitter. I thought both of these activities were a waste of time to be honest with you. Part of my distaste for facebook comes from what I called diminished friendship. When I would hear someone say "I have 423 friends" I would just shake my head and think how naive that person was being. For me, true friendship is something that grows and develops over time. Friends will be there through thick and thin and the over-riding criteria for me is quality over quantity. I fear that friendship is being dumbed-down to the status of "acquaintance" by the facebook generation and I believe this is a mistake.

However, after having created a facebook and a twitter account and actually using them (grudgingly at first), I am seeing some merit in their use. Regarding facebook, I am a minimalist user. I usually log in twice a week to see if anyone has commented on my previous posts and I may or may not add new content. I can quickly see what my friends have been up and I may or may not comment on their posts. Typically I'm not the type to make a comment for the sake of it, rather I will comment only if I can add something very useful to the conversation. My friends understand this and appreciate this (I think) as they know when I get involved in any conversation I usually give some productive input.

There have been enough positive aspects of facebook that will probably keep me as an active member after this course finishes. The most important aspect is the ability to reconnect or stay connected with friends. After spending two years overseas in Macau, I made some really good friends that I still want to stay connected with. Keeping in touch via email with this group is not something I have ben able to do, but with facebook it has been very easy to stay in touch. I don't even have to make direct contact with a "friend", rather I can just follow his/her posts to keep current. So easy! I met up with another friend (that I haven't seen in seven years) at a volleyball tournament last month and we had a great time reminiscing but our time together was short. I told him that we must keep in touch and his response was "Are you on facebook?" Within a week we were "friends"!

Another positive for me has been reading many articles offering suggestions about do's & don'ts and personal security etc. and I have really taken them to heart. There are many stories about someone losing a job or not getting a job or being socially chastised for putting something inappropriate on facebook. I feel that I have found a happy medium that allows me to stay connected but in a way that is safe and not a detriment to my career or my personal reputation. One interesting suggestion that I came across was that it is alright to use an alias. A friend of mine actually does this and I think it makes a lot of sense.


Social Networking and Teaching and Learning

There is much debate currently about how and even if social networking tools should be used in schools. I will share with you what I have found to be the most common reasons "for" and "against" social networking prior to providing my thoughts on the issue.

Reasons for using a social networking tool (such as facebook) in the classroom:
1. Building of trust with students (the teacher is like one of them)
2. The power of networking and collaboration (power comes from sharing information rather keeping it to yourself)
3. Engaging students with a tool that they are familiar using
4. Some students who are too shy to be involved in class may be more inclined to participate online

Reasons against using social networking sites in the classroom:
1. The line between teacher and student becomes blurred (or even crossed); teachers are to be mentors not friends
2. A lack of privacy that may lead to undesirable actions such as cyber-bullying or contact with online predators
3. May be against district or state guidelines
4. Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of losing control

Personally, I think that social networks should not be used in the classroom because many of them have such a bad rap. For every positive that is mentioned, someone will have a negative (or two) in response. I can see a lot of time and energy wasted in what I think would be a losing cause anyway.

However, the concept behind social networks is powerful and there are benefits that are too strong to ignore. The focus needs to be on "Educational Networking" (positive connotation) rather than "Social Networking" (negative connotation). The concepts remain the same but the context is now more favourable. Having said this, calling facebook an educational network will not work. The focus needs to be on educational networks such as Ning, ePals or Elgg.


I joined the Classroom 2.0 Ning network at the beginning of this course and I have found it to be very useful. Being part of a group of like-minded individuals creates some powerful collective wisdom. Members can float questions, get responses, add comments, and take part in free & interactive webinars through elluminate and Learncentral.org. This has been a great resource for me when researching web 2.0 tools as many useful and practical bits of information get posted by members. I even took part in an elluminate session about podcasts and the teacher was leading the session from his classroom while getting help from his students!

For the teacher who wants his/her students to use an educational networking tool, I recommend checking out Elgg. I've never used it but it has been mentioned by many members of Classroom 2.0 as an excellent resource for teachers and schools. Here is a word about Elgg:
"Elgg, started in 2004, is an open source social platform which powers all kinds of social environments - from education to business and sports such as rugby. If you are looking to create your own social application or want to build and run a site for your organisation, Elgg is a great choice as it provides the building blocks you will need". (http://elgg.org/about.php)

The positive thing about creating your own Ning or Elgg network is control. Membership can be controlled so that privacy can be maintained. Comments or additions can be deleted if inappropriate. Parents, administrators and other teachers can join so they can experience the learning that takes place. Students get to improve their sharing and collaboration skills while learning about online safety. These points need to be emphasized if educational networking tools are to be allowed to be used in the classroom by teachers and students.


Conclusion

For me, social networking is all about the "social'. Using a social network is a great way to connect, hang out, re-connect, and stay up to date. Just make sure you understand the potential drawbacks and protect yourself at all times.

For all of its positives, I strongly believe tools such as facebook and MySpace need to stay out of the schools. Could they be used properly and effectively? Maybe. But as I mentioned earlier there is too much negative baggage associated with these types of social networks.

The word "social" needs to be thrown out and replaced by "educational". The concepts of sharing, interacting, and collaborating online are very powerful and the potential uses in the classroom should not be overlooked. Ning's and Elgg's should be used by teachers and students in order to improve teaching and learning in the classroom. I've learned so much in a short period of time and if a digital immigrant such as myself can learn from using these tools, I'm certain our students can too!


References

Blanding, M. (2009) Thanks for the Add. Now Help Me with My Homework. Ed.magazine. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/295594

Boyd, D. (2009) Social Media is Here to Stay ... Now What? Retrieved from http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/295595

Hamel, G. (2009) The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500. Gary Hamel's Management 2.0 Blog. Retrieved from http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/436956 the facebook generation vs

Johnson, D. (2009) Guidelines for Educators Using Social Networking Sites. Blue Skunk Blog. Retrieved from http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/916695

Mcconchie, S. (2010) Should Teachers be "Friends" with Their Students Online? Kiwi Commons. Retrieved from http://kiwicommons.com/2010/01/should-teachers-be-“friends”-with-their-students-online/

Ormiston, M. (2008) Roadblocks to Social Networking in Classrooms. Retrieved from http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/649749:BlogPost:112274

Richardson, W. (2009) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 2nd Edition, Corwin Press

Hello (Ani)Moto

Ahh, spring is in the air and my thoughts are turning to golf as I see more and more grass appearing around me. But alas, its still technically winter and school's still in... so must snap out of it and get back to work!

My Web 2.0 world continues to expand with this week topic: Multimedia sharing sites. Animoto and VoiceThread are popular examples of multimedia or "mash up" tools that combine two or more sources (i.e pictures, text, music, and video) and integrate them into one entirely new source of information. Both tools are quite new but I do see potential uses in the classroom for both of them.

The Learning Process

My introduction to multimedia sharing started with the Trailfire entries put together by my instructor Joanne. Commoncraft put together a great video explaining the concept behind Social Media. WIthin the Animoto site itself, the "Learn More in 60 sec" video offered a fabulous summary of what Animoto can do and what one can use it for.

As Animoto is fairly new to the Web 2.0 world, there has been very little written about it (by academics anyway), however, Keith McPherson's article "mashing literacy" (2008) is a great article on Animoto mashing that provides a short introduction to Animoto, pros & cons of using this tool, and potential uses in the classroom.

Other sources of information included Andrew Marcinek's blog post in which he outlines a variety of uses he has found for using Animoto in the classroom. I was also fortunate is take part in an Elluminate session called "Web tools survey: Animoto and Glogster", which was conducted by a teacher from his classroom. This teacher talked about potential uses for Animoto as well as his reasons for wanting to use this tool, but the best part was that students took part in this session as well. A number of students spoke about why they liked Animoto and their particular Animoto creations played on the screen while they spoke. Very powerful stuff!

The last part of the learning process (and the most fun) was creating my very own video with Animoto. The process was quick and easy which I think will make this tool even more popular with the masses. Here is a look at a video I created for my daughters.

My Personal Learning

I never heard of Animoto before this week, but it made an immediate impression on me. After watching the introductory video, I wanted to make my own immediately. I'm not entirely sure what the "hook" was but it is there and it is strong. My daughter also had the same feeling and she has gone Animoto crazy making several short videos in the past three days. Even my retired, non-tech mother was impressed (she used the word cool...).

The great thing about Animoto is that I can easily post my videos to Facebook and twitter, which are both great ways to share my creations with a wider audience. I am often hesitant to post to these social networking sites as I don't want to post about mundane things; I feel that I should post something that people will really enjoy. A video certainly fits the bill in this regard and I see myself posting more often two these two sites because of Animoto.

Another positive is that Animoto is improving my daughters' technical skills. SInce she has chosen to create with Animoto, her computing skills have improved as she searches for photos, uploads them, chooses music, tweaks the layout and shares her finished product with her friends.

I can see Animoto videos replacing email to some regard for both of us. Email is easy and useful (yet boring when compared to a video) but a 30 second video can provide the same message and so much more! I plan to use this tool on a regular basis and have applied for an education account. If I wasn't a teacher, I would shell out the $30/year to get access to full length videos without any hesitation.


Teaching and Learning With Animoto

In this section of my post, I will share with you what I think the pros and cons of using Animoto prior to discussing potential uses in the classroom. I'll start with the positives:

1. It's free or fairly inexpensive for individual users. If you are OK with 30 second videos then there is no cost to you. If you want to make full length videos then it will cost you $30/year which is still reasonable.

2. It's SO easy. I couldn't believe how easy it was to make my first video. You supply or find the photos, choose the music and Animoto does the rest. No matter how poor someones computing skills are, they can work with Animoto.

3. The videos are engaging. This is a new buzz word in the education world and Animoto will definitely engage students in the classroom. I still remember when MTV and MuchMusic started out and they are still going strong; this is a testament to the popularity of these types of videos.

4. These videos are great for auditory, visual , and textual learners (McPherson, 2008).

5. There are numerous ways to shares these videos: email, facebook, twitter, YouTube, post to a blog, burn to CD/DVD, and download. So many more people can see ones creation! (McPherson, 2008).

6. Animoto is a web based application; all you need is a computer connected to the internet.

7. If you don't have a camera, you can use flickr or creativecommons.org to get photos for your video.

There are a few negatives:

1. Animoto is dependent on Flash, which uses up a lot of bandwidth. If you don't have a reliable high-speed internet connection you will have issues. (McPherson, 2008)

2. I'm not sure what the education account provides for the money (still waiting to hear from the people at Animoto) but if a school had to pay $30 per computer, that could get pricey if the school has several computer labs. (McPherson, 2008)

3. Animoto is very new, thus there has been very little scholarly research done on the impact of its use. As well, there are few sources outlining curricular integration of this tool. Most articles and blog posts written to date of are the how-to genre. (McPherson, 2008)

4. Animoto is so basic and simple to use that there aren't any tools available to tweak the presentation. I fear some people may get bored with cookie-cutter videos.

Although Animoto is fairly new, several uses have been identified by educators already. Some of them include:

1. Pointing out important themes or ideas of a novel, unit, presentation etc.

2. Creating a "movie trailer" type video to introduce a course, unit or lesson.

3. Vocabulary development. Words can be defined, used in a sentence, and explained as a part of speech.

4. Introduce a formula or a problem.

5. Compare and contrast ideas.

6. Act as an alternative to a collage or a poster (definitely will save some trees!)

7. A great way to advertise an athletic event or promote a team.

8. A great way to create a promotional video for Open House or Meet the Teacher events.

9. Share aspects of a field trip with parents and other students/staff.

10. Within Physical Education classes, students could make a short video demonstrating and breaking down a specific skill (i.e. serving a volleyball, heading a soccer ball).


A Word About VoiceThread

The majority of my time this week was spent with Animoto but I still created a VoiceThread, just so that I could be able to use it again in the future without having to learn it from scratch. Check out my VoiceThread here. I have to apologize as it is very basic and I'm the only one that has made comments so far although I have sent comment requests to my daughter and my wife!

When I viewed my first VoiceThread during the Trailfire posts, I found it to be very similar to a podcast although multiple people usually take part in Voicethreads. I was very impressed with the ease of use and the quick learning curve, much like with Animoto.


Conclusion

I can see myself using Animoto regularly with my classes in the future. It's easy to use, very engaging for users and viewers, and the resulting videos can be quickly shared with others in several different ways. As Animoto uses video, sound, and text, many different learning styles can be covered with this one tool. I believe students will enjoy this new and exciting way of sharing their knowledge with others as well. I hope teachers and administrators will see the merit of using Animoto in the classroom so that it may become a regular contributor to the teaching and learning process.

VoiceThread is also a useful tool that is great for sharing but also collaborating since multiple people can add their thoughts to the topic at hand. Although I found VoiceThread to be a bit more difficult to work with than Animoto (it was slower creating a voicethread when compared to creating with Animoto), I believe it will also have some use in the teaching and learning environment. How popular these two tools will become is anyone's guess but certainly the potential is strong.


References

Animoto case studies retrieved from http://animoto.com/education/case_studies

Commoncraft video: Social Media in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia

Marcinek, Andrew. (2009) Hello Animoto. Retrieved from http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/hello-animoto

McPherson, Keith. (2008) mashing literacy. Teacher Librarian. Vol. 35, Iss. 5, p.73-75

Web tools survey: Animoto and Glogster. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/participateMSP2

Wylie, Jonathan. (2009) Creating Free Online Slideshows with Animoto in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/reviews/57062.aspx

It's Wiki Week

What better way to shake off the post-Olympic blah's than to learn about and use another Web 2.0 tool. Okay... I admit it's not quite as exciting and full of speed and intensity as the WInter Olympics were but life goes on and it will have to do. This week tool is the wiki, which is a Hawaiian word meaning "fast".

Before I get too deep in the wiki world, a formal definition of a wiki is in order. Wikis are websites that allow their users to create and edit content and all wikis include the ability for editing by more than one person, either website members or those from the general public (Grant, 2008). The fast aspect of wikis is referring to the ease by which information can be added to or edited within a wiki. Why are they so popular? The knowledge of many is a strong elixir. The belief in "the 'wisdom of crowds' [states] that the collective knowledge of a large group can be greater than that of an individual, even if that individual is an expert" (Surowiecki, as cited by Grant, 2009). This "collective intelligence" (Grant, p. 107) is held in a high regard by many I believe and it can be proven by the growth and popularity of wikipedia itself.

Contrary to some of the previous tools I have learned in this course, I have used a wiki in the past, although my experience with it was fairly simplified. My last school used a wiki to organize everything you could ever want to know about the school. Need to know report card deadlines and procedures? Check the wiki. Going on a field trip? Check the wiki for forms and procedures. Need the program of studies or other online resources? Well... check the wiki. Was the wiki useful? Usually it was. Unfortunately, the wiki was so large and their were so many headings and pages that I often didn't know where to look in order to find what I needed. I found it counterproductive (and annoying) to have to ask an administrator where in the wiki I could find what I was looking for. This particular wiki tended not to be a collaborative project that everyone could take part in but rather a place for pertinent information to be stored for future consideration.

The Learning Process

The learning process for me was a four-part endeavour. First, course texts provided a fairly good introduction to wikis although I found Davies and Merchant's (2009) text spent too much time relating the discussion to Wikipedia, the world's most popular and most well-known wiki. Richardson (2009) I felt did a better job of introducing wikis and wikipedia while still spending a good amount of time discussing the use of wikis in schools. He also provided some examples of wikis currently used by teachers. Richardson also points out that the wiki platform WetPaint allows the teacher to track the participation of his/her students participation in the editing process. A great tool indeed!

Secondly, there are many scholarly articles available that discuss the uses for and benefits of wikis in an educational setting. Schweder & Wissick's "The Power of Wikis" (2009) is a concisely written article that organizes the uses of wikis into four specific categories: collaboration, sharing, organization, and instruction. Lyndsay Grant's article "I DON'T CARE DO UR OWN PAGE! A case study of using wikis for collaborative work in a UK secondary school" discusses not only the wisdom behind the wiki concept but also points out some obstacles that may prevent wikis from being as useful as many people think. This two-sided research was refreshing as all of my other readings to date have been very positive and rah! rah! without commenting on the potential barriers to implementation in the classroom. More on her findings later.

Thirdly, tutorials within two common wiki platforms also provided me with some great information albeit related to creating my wiki. I signed up with two wiki providers, PBwiki and Wikispaces. Both offered tutorials regarding the aspects of wiki creation, development, and editing etc. and I wanted to try both to get a feel for the one that was the right fit for me (sorry Wetpaint, maybe another time).

Playing around and developing my wiki was the last part of the learning process. I started with PBwiki first and I found it fairly easy to create different pages but the adding content part did not come as easy as I would have liked. Wikispaces was more user friendly for me and not only is it easy to create and link pages but the adding of content seemed much easier as well. I credit the look and set-up of Wikispaces for this as well as its great tutorials.
I decided to create a new wiki rather than tinker with an existing one. Why? I wanted to experience the creation and editing process so that I could do both in the future. Check out my wiki here.


My Personal Learning

What could I see myself or my family using a wiki for? Well, I think a wiki would be a great resource for planning a vacation. Many of our vacations in the past have been with other families and while they have all been enjoyable experiences, the planning part has often been... awkward. Let's face it, different people have different tastes and often it is tough finding activities, choosing lodging, flights etc that everyone can agree on. The usual scenario involves emails flying back and forth and the process tends to be long and drawn out. A wiki would be a great place for all parties involved to share information about attractions, transportation, lodging, shopping... whatever. If links were provided then everyone could check out each suggestion which I believe would lead to a much easier time organizing the overall trip. A schedule of activities could also be created on the wiki to take the chosen activities and place them into various time slots if desired. Personally I see great potential for wikis as sharing and collaboration tools.

Another great use on a personal level would be the creation of a house wiki. I tend to be the one that fixes broken things or makes the call to someone to have something fixed. This is fine unless something goes wrong when I'm not home. My house wiki would be a great place to not only list important activities (i.e change furnace filter, have furnace inspected, clean eaves troughs, clean & check smoke detectors etc) but to also list help numbers (i.e plumber, electrical, insurance etc.) if there are serious problems.

Having created a wiki this week has given me the confidence and knowledge to create another one again!


Wikis and Teaching & Learning

From all my reading and research, it is apparent that wikis are becoming more and more popular in the classroom. What can they be used for? I'll share with you a list of possibilities put together by Schweder & Wissick (2009) that I think outlines the most common uses:
1. Collaboration. Wikis allow for collaboration amongst students, and/or teachers, and even parents at a time that is convenient for everyone. Everyone who contributes has ownership and thus is more involved in the project. Other possible collaboration scenarios include curricular planning and professional development. For teachers who have not used wikis before, experiencing wikis with colleagues would be a non-threatening way to learn about them prior to introducing them in the classroom.
2. Sharing. Regarding PD, how many of us have viewed a powerpoint slide show during a PD presentation? Most of us I'm sure. The thing about this type of presentation is that information tends to travel in only one direction. What if the same presentation was given using a wiki and those in attendance were asked (even told) that they had to add to the wiki? Information (i.e resources) could be added or edited immediately to improve the overall presentation. I could see a more engaged, active and lively PD session because of this.
3. Organization. A wiki would be a great way to organize content. Rather than bookmarking websites, add the link to your wiki. Because the editing process is so easy, links can be added or deleted with ease and others can add their favourites as well.
4. Instruction. Assignments, reminders, study tips, review materials could all be included in a wiki. Students could partake and also add their own materials to the wiki.

As I mentioned earlier, most of the materials I read outlined only the positive aspects of wikis but I think their are some forces at work that hinder the effectiveness of wikis and these forces need to be understood and dealt with by teachers that plan to use wikis. Grant (2009) points out two areas of concern in this regard.

First, students in her study often did not see the ability to edit others students work as helpful or even desirable (p. 110). A number of students chose to focus on their own work rather that editing someone else's. This rejection of collaboration was based on feelings of individuality and that fact that someone who did edit another persons work was seen as "trespassing in someone else's territory" (Grant, p. 111). Bruns and Humphreys (as cited in Grant, p. 113) state: "If truly collaborative work is the goal... then the reluctance to critically evaluate and learn how to provide constructive critique to peers must be over come".

The second area of concern that Grant points out is the level of involvement by the teacher in the classroom. Teachers must not simply take a back seat to learning with wikis or other web 2.0 tools, rather they must show their students how to participate and collaborate in the classroom. Independent learning does not equate to minimal teacher involvement in this regard and thus teachers must take on an active and significant role in this process.


References

Commoncraft tutorial retrieved from http://commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english

Davies, J., Merchant, G. (2009) Web 2.0 for Schools. Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York

Grant, L. (2009) I DON'T CARE DO UR OWN PAGE! A case study of using wikis for collaborative work in a UK secondary school. Learning, Media and Technology, 34: 2, p. 105-117

Richardson, Will. (2009) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and OtherPowerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press

Schweder, W., Wissick, C. (2009) The Power of Wikis. Journal of Special Education Technology, Vol. 24, No. 1, p. 57-60

Wikispaces Help retrieved from http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour