Wikis, Blogs, and Web

Publishing: in the Classroom

Melissa JosefMarch 2015

The new tools technology is providing us with are creating new ways for students to express themselves through writing and allowing them to participate in deep dialogue about their learning.

The BlogosphereThe world of self-publishing has exploded with the blog. Through blogs, anyone anywhere can write about their world and publish on the web. That ability is in some ways a double-edged sword. Students must learn to carefully evaluate everything they read on the web, but blogs also provide a window into first-hand experiences of life in other parts of the world that they never would have had access to in the past.

For this course, I designed a specific blog to support a unit on Africa. Guest bloggers from Kenya will write about their country and issues their country is facing giving students an opportunity to interact with actual people from a part of the world they are studying. While this is an experimental blog, our hope is that students will be more engaged in their study of Africa and will be motivated to dig deeper in their inquiry.

Students can comment on what they are reading directly with the author of a blog postings and can submit their own writing and reflections on learning to be published on the blog.

GVHS Africa Unit Blog

List of African Blogs (Blogger Widget)

I created by blog using Blogger, although I did explore Wordpress. I have used Blogger to design several other blogs and find it somewhat easier when designing and manipulating images. There are some quirky issues with both platforms that I think will ultimately be resolved as they evolve. In the 7 years since I first started a blog with Blogger, I have already seen many improvements.

My Personal Blog, The Suburban Barnyard

WikisObviously the most famous wiki is Wikipedia, but I am most excited by the potential wikis have in the classroom. While I was a library student, I observed a friend’s class for a unit on the Holocaust. The students were reading Number the Stars and she had created a wiki where the students each assumed an identity as a holocaust survivor, immigrant to American from Europe during the Holocaust, or a Holocaust victim. The IDs were randomly distributed and students then created their character in the wiki.

For my Africa project, I decided to use Wikispaces in much the way I would use Schoology, Canva, or other LMS platforms. I created links to African newspapers and a collection of YouTube videos about Africa. I’ll be working with two teachers to then create assignments where students are able to write, comment, explore, and create based on their own interests and inquiry in these two areas. When the classroom is live, only students and teachers will have access to the wiki.

GVHS Africa Unit Wiki

RSSI created an RSS feed with RSSInclude to insert news stories into my blog from African online news sources. I have also used RSS on all of my blogs both to allow people to subscribe.

RSS Feed in Africa Blog – created with RSSInclude

Storify: the-shrinking-world

Web 2.0 Tool -- Storify

Moodle and Online LearningI love online learning as an adult, but find it best in a blended learning environment. I did my MLIS at Pitt and I still feel that their approach to online learning is among the best I’ve seen to date. We had regular interaction with classmates and instructors in the digital classroom environment, used a wide variety of tech apps and tools, and designed all of our lesson plans with technology in mind.

My concern about the push for MOOCs in the K-12 environment is that they purport a model that does not have as much interaction among classmates or with instructors. A blended learning approach has the most potential for long-term success as the classroom becomes more student-centered and teachers evolve toward a mentor and coach role.

ConclusionI am excited to see where students take this project next month now that I have a framework up and running. I anticipate that it will help push learning into a far more student-centered arena and that it will generate even more ideas and possibilities for the future.