Post #4- Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Keeping Up 2.0 Style, Digital Literacies, Radical Change and wikis

Chapter 4

I don’t know where I stand on the whole “wiki” thing honestly. I know that having them in the classroom can be a good way for students to get their feet wet on creating and editing something. However, I have been told time and time again that using a wiki, such as Wikipedia, just isn’t a good source for information.  I understand that with people editing and looking through information others have written that “there are vastly more editors who want to make it right than those who want to make it wrong (pg 56),” but you still can’t guarantee the information is correct.  I do think that using Wikipedia does “help our students become better learners- namely collaboration and negotiation skills (pg 58).”  I think that if a class has their own wiki page, it’s a great way of having their thoughts and opinions, as well as some work they’ve done, on showcase for others to see.  If it’s a private wiki that only the teacher or students can edit, then it’s even better because nobody else can edit the page and add whatever they want.  I also liked the following quote on page 69, which I think sums up what using wikis in a classroom is all about: “The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort.”

Chapter 5

The one thing I really liked about reading about RSS is that the pages you are subscribed to have the information coming at you all the time instead of you having to go get it.  I think using this is good and helpful because when a teacher needs to show their students a website or an article, it’s much easier to just pull it up that way instead of going through Google and searching for it.  All the teacher would have to do is pull it up and there it is; I also like that the user can delete information that’s not relevant at all to the topic, so you can easily get rid of unnecessary information.  I also like that the RSS feeds have comments which can establish more of a community and bring educators and community members together; “well-established conversations and communities lend themselves to better reading and potential network building (pg 74).”  I liked how on page 82, Richardson says that once the feed has new information on it, it’s hard to keep track of the information when so many new things are coming in.  “If you do stick with it, you’ll begin to notice some changes in the way you go about getting your information.  First, odds are you’ll find yourself buying fewer newspapers and magazines (pg 83).” 

I liked how Keeping Up, 2.0 Style basically reiterated what chapter 5 stated, that using an RSS feed is helpful in keeping information that would otherwise be missed brought to us on a regular basis.  I think this is important because sometimes people don’t have the time to check the newspaper, so having this kind of feed allows them to be up-to-date on important information as soon as it comes on the feed.  Having wikis in education could be important, as they “have great potential for promoting online and offline collaborating and for disseminating research and practical resources among educators in accessible ways (pg 631).”  Digital Literacies opened my eyes on how to use wikis in the classroom a little more, especially when it was combined with chapter 4.  Both texts brought up great points on using wikis in the classroom, and I particularly liked how websites such as NewLits.org provide tutorials for new users, as shown on page 632.  I think that is very useful and important to have for people who aren’t very technologically advanced yet want to use a wiki in their classrooms.  I had never heard of Radical Change texts before reading Radical Change and wikis, so I found it a little confusing at first.   However, I liked the work that was done with the 6^th grade students to make their own meanings of books that were brought in.  I agree that the students were making their own meanings of these texts: “…the students were noticing and engaging in a different practice of meaning making (pg 218).”  It is important for students to make their own meanings of something especially when they might not understand it at first.  I think that with changing technology and new way of being able to post information, it is important that we’re “aware of how the manifestations of literacy are broadening and changing.  We need to think less about teaching content and more about engaging students in the processes (pg 222-223).”  I think that quote is only partially true; it is important to still teach content, but it is important for teachers to use these new literacies in their classrooms to engage their students.