The Wikis

Few days ago I thought the only Wiki that existed was Wikipedia. I was completely unaware of everything about wikis, apart from Wikipedia, that is why this assignment was a complete challenge for me, and I liked it. I was so exited creating my wiki, searching for information and discovering the different applications of this useful web 2.0, a first I thought that it was very similar to Google doc, but then I realized that it’s very different. The wikis have so many applications in different fields like education and labor; wikis are collaborative tools that allow you share your work with others people and allow them to collaborate with you. It was fun creating my Wiki page once I figured out how to handle it.

Wiki in the School:

As an educational tool wikis are very useful, we saw an example of that in the video ‘Using PBWorks Wikis in the Classroom’  we could see how a  teacher uses wikis to assign tasks to students, motivate them to collaborate and participate. Some of the functions that the different actors of education can realize using wikis are:

Teachers	Learners	School
Schedules, resources, research, content, links, consultations, courses.	Portfolio, research, links, summaries, notes, individual texts, collaborative texts, opinions, knowledge sharing, consultation.	Departments, magazines, resources, curricula.

An idea for an activity we might do with learners that would involve the use of a wiki can be:  create a collaborative text, where they compose a poem for the literature class. This assignment is designed for a group of about fifteen students and each one must collaborate with ideas. They should write at least 400 words, these tasks Promotes the group collaboration.

Wiki in my life:

           

The video ‘Wikis in Plain English’ showed us an interesting and very simple way for using wikis. A simple thing like creating a list is something that you can do in a wiki. But the interesting part is that you can create that list in collaboration with your friends far away or people all over the world.

Wiki in the work:

           

You can use wikis at work to:

- To collectively create a ‘welcome kit’.

-Write rules.

- Share information on company products.

- Collaborative space to assess new products.

- Meeting Agenda.

- Customer Service.

You should go and see my Wiki HERE.

My First Experience with RSS and Blogging (The Cone of Dale and the Imagination of Siegel)

I must say that my impression of using a blog has been very good, after I figure out how to create a blog I found myself enjoying the whole process of the design. Actually I’m a fan of blogs, but I haven’t had the interest on creating one, till now.

Now that I have my own blog I want to improve the design and add all kinds of attractive apps like put the links of my RSS feeds, but I have not find out how to do that yet. To create the RSS was really easy, I did not have any experience or expectation with that before, but now I've noticed the utility of this application; I can easy track all the updates of my favorite blogs without opening one by one.

The parts of Dale’s Cone that I think lends themselves best to the tools we have used so far in this class are; well the truth is that was undecided between: Visual symbol, Verbal Symbols and recordings, radio, still pictures.

What parts fit better and why? That was a period of time we did not have all the technology advances that we have today, so the difference is heaven to earth. I chose Visual symbols because as the author say in this division of the cone, we are not longer involved with the realistic reproduction of physical things. In the creation of our blogs physical things were not involved, but we had a learning experience, we also had to use verbal symbols to upload information to the blog. The different is that with the new technologies advance that we have now, we can combine visual and verbal symbols with motion picture, recordings, radio and still pictures. The RSS tools is more a verbal symbol with this you can tell easily which sites have made an updates in its content, but it’s also a visual symbol, you can notice the updates without reading, just by looking  the colors or numbers that symbolize any change.

I think there are many imaginative educational uses for a blog. The idea that you can become a journalist and document all your assignments like a professional is very attractive for, me as student and as a teacher. In a blog you not just post something and that's it, actually you have the feeling that you can publish something really important and make a change in the world or at least make your voice heard. With a blog, students can share their ideas and they can look into their classmate blogs and in that way they can have a much more wide perspective of the assignments.

It’s funny that you have mentioned Postman’s question, because I enjoyed so much his interrogations.  What is the problem to which RSS is an answer? Well I would not say it's a problem to solve, but it is an advantage to use this tool to keep students updated with assignments in an easy and faster way.

Postman and Reigeluth Articles

What an interesting contrast between these two articles. I must say that I enjoyed more to read Postman article, even though I do not agree with his general idea about new technologies. It was like reading a satire on our education system and kept my interest throughout the article and for some reason made me smile, well, maybe because I was imagining a monkey hitting a computer with a bone while reading his article. I mean, I do agree with the author when he says that  the principal functions of school is to teach children how to behave in groups, and the lack of human and moral values, but I’m not agree when he says that  school should not be about individualized learning. In this fact I think that Reigeluth is right in my opinion; when he talks about individualize learning. Each student is different, each student have different background, interests and skills; therefore every student learns at different rates. That’s why we need a personalized education, where they meet the learning needs of each individual.

In Reigeluth’s article he points out the weakness of our education system, which is designed to sort the students and not learning-focused, one reason could be the lack of interest of the state to invest the money it takes to break standards.  As Reigeluth says ‘our teaching method might not only shift from passive to  active learning but also help develop initiative and responsibility in learners for their own learning’. While technology is not the solution for all the educational problems I think that this goal can be achieved through technology. Using methods like online education where learner can have the opportunity to own their education and they be responsible of their initiatives.  Sadly it’s true that our Education System is time-based and not attainment-based.

Amusing, what is a problem for one of the authors, is the solution to the other  ‘information’ According to Postman we don’t need all the information we are bombarded with today through various technological means, and not even know what to do with it, so it becomes an obstacle. While Reigeluth thinks that thanks to the large amount of information that can be handled through the technology, we can individualize learning.

            I firmly believe that technology plays a key point to transform the education system, but I also believe that technology alone cannot solve educational problems. If educators do not know how to use it properly, so I’m agree when Reigeluth says  ‘using technology to support what they are already doing is not a productive course of action when compared to using technology to transform their teaching to a paradigm that is attainment-based rather than time-based.’ In conclusion: we do need integrate technology into the schools and we do need integrate more human and moral values into the school.