Opinion Paper 3

Learning with Blogs and Wikis

When I read the title of this article, I caught myself rolling my eyes thinking, I’m not good at these and don’t particularly care for blogs or wikis. However, as I read the article I began to see the point and agree completely with it. It wasn’t so much about us not using them as us not receiving the professional development necessary to use them. We, as teachers, are at a loss when it comes to new and immerging technologies being used in the classroom. We may or may not have even heard of such things as wikis or blogs, but our students most likely have.
To maximize interest in class I feel teachers need to utilize more 21st century skills to reach students. To be able to do this effectively, we need useful professional development to show us how to utilize them. Most often professional development involves the “latest craze sweeping the business world” rather than more doable topics (Ferriter, 2009).
However, this also means we must have the technology, or access to technology, for our students to use. That is becoming harder to do with proration breathing down upon us.
Digital tools can also be helpful to the educator in other ways. Educational blogs from other professionals can be helpful to us on many levels. They are free and allow a place for reflection, questions, and advice all pertinent to teachers and their practice. Ferriter (2009) explains how to lesson the internet searching of blogs by suggesting the use of feed readers that check content and lesson browsing time. Since reading this article, I will visit some of the given websites and search other educational blogs on my topics of interest.
Ferriter (2009) also suggests using wikis which are also easy to use and master. These websites allow the user to add to and edit material as a contribution for others. Wikis also have discussion boards to allow for conversations with others in the same field. I feel slightly more comfortable with blogs and wikis due to our ED 529 class, not so much from this article though.

References
Ferriter, B. (2009). Learning with blogs and wikis. Educational Leadership, 66(5), Retrieved
from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/feb09/vol66/num05/
Learning_with_Blogs_and_Wikis.aspx