Friday, July 15, 2011

Blogs, Wikis, and Moodle

The readings about Blogs and Wikis were very informative. I think both have a lot of uses in the classroom. The nice thing about these resources is that they can be used for a lot of things. The research provided in the slideshow was excellent. Posts and discussions on blogs and wikis lead to increased research by the students, increased discussion, increased collaboration, and increased face to face participation. I’ve noticed this through my own personal experience. I’m a relatively shy person. When I was in high school I dreaded being embarrassed by giving a wrong answer or asking a “dumb” question. Even today, I’m more likely to ask for help from other teachers when I have time to write out my questions and thoughts (which is easily done online). For that reason, I love using my blog and Twitter as a place to discuss teaching ideas.

In terms of preference, I think both have their benefits. Blogs are great for reflection and discussion, while wikis have a little more flexibility and allow for more collaboration. Personally, I prefer blogs. Wikis seem bulky to me for some reason. I think it would take more time to get the students used to a wiki as well. Blogs are very easy to start and use. At my school district, we are required to have a Moodle for each one of our classes. For those of you not familiar with Moodle, this is a site that can pretty much do all these things. The site can be used to host documents, videos, pictures, links, forums, and quizzes. It also has blogging and wiki capabilities. Because it does do all of these things, the resources aren’t top notch. You can’t create a blog as nice as the ones we’ve created for this class. It does have its limitations. I need to explore the blog and wiki capabilities of Moodle a little more before I decide whether to create a blog through Moodle or just put a link to a blog on my Moodle. If anyone has used the blog or wiki functions on Moodle before, let me know what you think.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Taylor, I enjoyed your post. I too use Moodle and am learning more about it every year. You reminded me about the wiki and blog parts. I am going to have to explore those. I know that I can also link outside of Moodle and that is what I may do if the internal features do not work that well. Thanks.

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  2. Hi Taylor,
    Moodle is the platform our school uses as well. Like you, I have not yet fully explored its potential. I plan on looking into the blogging and wiki capabilities also, but if they are more limited than those we've used in this class, I might just link a class blog or wiki (if I decide to add them) to my Moodle class page instead. Although I have only used Moodle on a very limited basis, other teachers in our school have had great success with many of Moodle's aspects. I intend to branch out more with it this year. I really like that the students can access all their classes from one page and that all their student information is already set up for the teachers. We are lucky to have a wonderful technology trainer at our school that will "go the extra mile" to help us. I need to enlist her help more!

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  3. Taylor,
    I agree wholeheartedly about your reflection on the shy student. I went to a tech camp a few summers ago and worked with a student who is incredibly shy. She didn't say more than a few words and that was only when I asked her a direct question that couldn't be answered with a nod or a shake of the head. We did a podcast that we created a storyboard and script for. She did an amazing job with the camera, preparation and time to verify her information. She was composed, confident and anonymous. I never would have been able to get the information out of her in a traditional classroom project.
    ~Dana

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