Let me begin with a summary: So far we’ve covered cones and immersives, Luddites and new technologies (in 2002) for learning, and built our own blog and wiki and set up an RSS field. This is a lot of information for a kindergarten teacher! I’m wading through as best I can. It’s taken a lot of time but I’ve learned a lot as well. It’s been nice to be pushed outside my comfort zone a bit.
Creating a blog was a smooth and fun experience. It made sense right off the bat. I found some useful stuff online about new posting of blogs: http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/. Some of the stuff is way over my head but there’s basics in there as well that’s useful. I’ve always enjoyed writing so this was a natural format for me. I definitely will be keeping this going after the class finishes. The RSS field was not so much a fit. I subscribed to a few websites but haven’t figured out how to get the other student’s blog addresses added. Is there a list we can cut and paste from? As for its use it seems like signing yourself up willingly for spam. I’ve already removed a site that I thought I would like due to the massive amount of links that it gave me. It would probably be more useful if you could get to filter the sites a bit more for content I want.
Applying Dale’s cone to a blog media format has it fall across the top four layers of the cone. Most blog content is text, but it can be enriched by pictures, visual symbolism and links to videos or audio tracks. It matches the majority of the technology we already use for teaching students. Having a student create and maintain their own blog would include match Dale’s Cone definition of Direct Purposeful Experience but only on teaching how to create a blog or use the technology. It would be useful tool to allow students to organize their thoughts, share their work and dabble in technology. I can see it being a handy tool for secondary grade level students. It could be made imaginative by allowing students to use their blogs not just as a digital notebook but as a tool to interact with each other. I could visualize a savvy teacher grouping students in to small groups then give each of them a section of a problem to solve. By sharing their answers and checking with each other they could learn together what the bigger picture problem they all are working together to solve. This would let them to learn from each other as well as the course work. It would be a new twist on small groups where the students wouldn’t have to meet together face to face. This solves the problem we all remembered of group work being social hour back in high school! Of course blog time would have to fight with Facebook and video games but that’s already more of a war than a battle.
An RSS feed I don’t see as being a good fit for K-12 students. I subscribed to a learning feed but it wasn’t much better than a random Google search would be. It feels akin to flipping through the channels on the TV in hopes something good is on. You control the channels you click too but have no idea what’s coming on them. Applying Dale’s cone to an RSS feed has it also laying in between the top 4 layers. It incorporates text as its primary medium of communication but can link to videos, pictures, and possibly invites/schedules to more hands on events. Having only scratched the surface of using an RSS feed I have a bit more difficulty figuring out a good use for it in learning. An easy answer would be as we are using it now to share our blogs, but that’s no different than email alerts or similar. If content could be shaped and searched, students could perhaps use an RSS feed to save time on long term research for a project or paper. A news feed on a weather site would allow content to filter directly to you for a paper on weather and climate.
When Wikipedia first came out it seemed to be a science experiment more than anything else. People updated what ever they wished when ever they wished. There seemed to be skepticism on if it could ever really “work”. Now most people use it as their primary source of information on a given subject. Editors strive to keep the content as close to truthful and useful as possible. Companies use their own internal wikis for their files and information, and there are specialized wikis all over the internet. Here’s a list of some of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis. Once again it falls short of actual experiences or being hands on like the other computer accessed media so it lays in the top 4 layers of Dale’s cone. It can link to exhibits or educational videos but is hampered by its digital format. It’s unique layers of hyperlinking allow for some really imaginative layouts for presenting learning media. I remember reading about someone using wikipedia to write a “choose your own adventure” style of novel but I can’t seem to find a link to it. Layering of hyperlinks can provide a more three dimensional access to data, not in a visual sense but in how we can dig deeper in to parts of it with out moving away from the main focus. For example in an entry on volcanoes I can choose to read the entire content or drill deeper on tectonic plates or a list of active volcanoes. Using technology in learning needs to allow for more of this as it empowers the students to take the lead on their learning rather than sitting back and trying to absorb it.
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