Educational Wiki Use

Many people have heard of www.wikipedia.com, and they know that it is a website that has its users modifying it.  The question I am faced with is how can I apply this into my classroom?  Recently I signed up for a wiki to find out.

The first thing I did was go to www.wikispaces.com.  Signing up was easier then I first thought.  They did not ask for as much information as other websites have asked for.  Once signed in it was pretty easy to set up the pages.  Overall set up was easy.

The next step is to figure out how to use this in my classroom.  I am not sure that I would feel comfortable allowing my students to edit pages in the true spirit of a wiki.  I have already set up a blog site for them and I think that anything I can do on the wiki I can do on the blog site.  I also don’t like how the wiki is open to the public to view.  In this world we have a duty to protect our students.  They do have a pay for option that would require someone to sign in like my blog site but that costs money and with today’s budget cutting I probably won’t be getting the money anytime soon for a project like that.

If I were to set up a wiki for my class I would imagine that I’d use it for collaborative work.  I have learned this week through my EME 5050 class that students need to be active learners.  By providing a place for them to be active this feeds the need.  Students can do projects on the wiki like digital stories.  One student could provide the pictures, another could do the voiceover, and a third could put all the pieces together.  By having all the students actively working they will learn more.

I do see that wiki’s have their place and I will make an attempt at using them but I will be very careful about the security of my students in the process.

Digital Storytelling Part 2

I have been asked the question, "How can digital storytelling benefit your students?"  In this blog I will attempt to answer the question and show an example of digital storytelling.

I think that digital storytelling will benefit my students because it provides a different medium for my students to put stories on.  They may not like to write with a piece of paper and pencil but they really like to type.  The other digital media that is used in digital storytelling can be enjoyable for my students as well.  My students are very interested in music.  If they can do a project with music it will help them be more engaged in the project.  Another piece of digital media that they may like is videos.  My class loves to talk about movies all the time.  If they were to create a movie instead of writing a story they will definately be more engaged.  Lastly, if the students have a tangible piece to see and interact with they will feel more successful.

Digital storytelling is also benefitial for students to learn how to communicate.  Sometimes tone could be lost in written word.  If the students could show their feelings through the digital media they would be better understood.  For example, making a story with soft music could show that they feel calm.  This may sound simple but tone does say a lot about how a person is feeling.

It is important that students use digital storytelling properly.  Before I made my project I had to map it out.  This is an important organizational skill that students need to learn.

As you can see digital storytelling has many benefits to K-12 students.

How does Digital Storytelling Benefit My Students?

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Digital Storytelling Part 1

Recently I had to make a video for my EME 5053 class.  I am going to give an informal overview of the process.

• I used Windows Photo Story 3 to put it into a slide show with music.
• I then used www.zamar.com to switch it over to a Mac friendly file format
• I used iMovie to do the voice over recording

Some positives:

• I was able to have a finished product 
• Photo Story 3 worked like I thought it would
• iMovie was easy to use

Some negatives:

• Due to the file conversion the video is a little pixelly
• Due to file conversion the audio is slightly off
• When trying to email it to my professor the file was too big and our college's email service did not allow it to be sent

The reason I had to switch over to iMovie instead of Moviemaker is because my PC does not have a microphone and my Mac does.  I simply converted the file to a .mov file and then made a project in iMovie to record the voiceover.  For a first attempt I am pleased with the end result.

Here is the final project.  Let me know what you think.

My Life in the Cloud

I have recently heard the Internet and it’s blogs, websites, wikis, and other uses, referred to as the “Cloud.”  Here, I will take a moment to reflect on what my life looks like in the cloud. 

My reputation is very important to me.  The Internet is a massive tool that can be beneficial or harmful to my reputation.  The Internet is permanent and not going anywhere.  This makes the information on the Internet permanent.  It is important to me to have the right information about me on the Internet.  As part of my effort to protect my reputation I have created a Google profile.  It can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the link in my blog.  I have included my name and employer so that people are sure that they are viewing the correct profile.  I would not want another Timothy Reese that has a sketchy character to be clicked on instead of me.  Hopefully, this and other small steps can help build a strong and honest name. 

The Internet is a type of village.  The people on the Internet mingle among each other and learn about each other.  This is comparable the villages of 100 years ago.  Those people knew each other well and knew each other’s darkest secrets and never forgot.  The Internet is similar.  When I post comments on a blog they are here for all to see.  I could delete them later but if someone read them they will not forget what I said.  It is important to think about what I have said before I hit the “submit” button.  While the Internet has added to globalization it is also helping to make the world smaller and this village feel.

Reputation is earned.  A person must earn their reputation.  This very blog is going to be a part of my reputation whether it is viewed as a positive or negative aspect of my reputation.  People will read this blog or other websites that I use and make judgments against or for my character.  I must make sure that these judgments are based on true statements.  Using passwords is a way to protect my blog from allowing other people to use it and make statements that I do not say.  This is a very simple way to protect my reputation.

Sometimes there is information on the Internet that is not true about your character.  I do know of one website that quotes me as saying something and I never said it.  This was the result of some people thinking they were funny and pretending to be me and calling a newspaper about a certain event.  As part of protecting my reputation I immediately called the paper and they retracted their story.  Even though they did that I can search the quote and still find it on the Internet.  I have been emailing the website that has the quote for two years and they have not responded to me.  As part of the defense of my reputation I have a copy of the original story and the retraction and can refute any information that is wrong. 

My life is in the cloud but is it my life that people see or another Timothy Reese’s life?  My name is a pretty common name and I got over four million hits when I searched it on google.com.  There is a Timothy Reese that is a member of the United States military.  There is a Timothy Reese that has a lawn company.  Those are just a few.  I would not want people to be confused about which one is the real Timothy Reese that they are looking for.  The Google profile that I created should help with this because I included information that people would recognize as the Timothy Reese that they have met.

I am up there in the cloud.  Can you see me?  I hope you see the real me.