Wikis and Blogs and Websites, Oh My!

This week we have been asked to venture forth and create wikis and a website; a scary prospect for a computer illiterate such as myself! More on the pressing matters of Wikis and Websites in blogs to come, but for the time being I been asked to discuss Blogs in education/ the classroom.

At first I was hesitant as to the purpose of blogs in a classroom, but then I realised; if we do not teach them to use ICTs effectively and a responsible manner, then who else will?! To some teachers blogging for educational purposes in a primary school setting (as my aim is to become a Primary School/ Prep/State School Teacher, I feel it is probably more constructive to focus on these earlier years and not the more senior ones!) blogging is, in fact something they have been doing for years!!                                                                                                                                                                            Take for example, Kathleen Morris’ ‘Primary Tech’ website (http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/information-about-educational-blogging/) on which she indicates; this will be her sixth year in using blogging to educate her classes. It is a wonderful and informative website, with samples and leads to her blogs. But, as well as informing me, I find it has given me confidence with which to begin my own blog with my class (once I receive one as a fully qualified teacher! I do not intend on hijacking anyone’s classroom!). As Sir Francis Bacon once quoted; ‘knowledge is power’. This is revealing itself to be quite true on the blogging front!

More and more, we are seeing schools embracing blogs as a method of making education more palatable to a new generation! This seems to be occurring particularly in New Zealand. The Waiuku Primary School has a blog for their school and one blog per classroom streaming off it! This allows not only students and teachers to converse and monitor progress, but also parents and guardians. View this wonderful innovation at http://web.waiuku.school.nz/class-blogs.

All in all, a really positive experience! I can’t wait to begin my adventures in Wikis and Websites!