Friday, July 5, 2013

Educational Blogs and Wikis Chart

Site
How is it Being Used?
Features
Content Area(s)
Student Friendliness
Blog-

East Dragon Den



-Resources for all content areas
-A place for all students to have a blog
-Online collaboration
-This blog makes their classroom almost paperless. Assignments are given on the class blog and students respond on their own personal blogs.
Like:
-Clustr map- Creates audience and purpose in student work
-Writing conferencing form for teachers
-Resources for all content areas
-Science and Social Studies projects
-Math games for practice
-Language Arts- Read aloud CoverItLive
-Lang Arts book projects 
Like:
Tabs across the top make for easy navigation
All students have their own personal blogs linked along the right side of the main blog
Dislike:
There is nothing that I dislike about this site. I want to be this classroom ;-)

Dislike:
There is nothing that I dislike about this site. I want to be this classroom ;-)
It is definitely something that would take quite a bit of training for my students to be able to do though.
Blog-

QSIS 10




This is a blog for the
QSI International School of Sarajevo. All of the students post their work on this blog.

Like:
-Included Wordle word clouds
-Tabs across the top for easy navigation
-Lots of features down the right side of the page
-All content areas
-Individual writing and poetry projects featured
-Current events at the school
Like:
-Kids do some posting in groups and some individually



Dislike:
-I don’t dislike anything, they have a lot of great features

Dislike:
-Different writing portfolios and blogs. I think they could be combined
Blog-

Comments 4 Kids


-It features student blogs from all over the world so that they can get comments and students can feel audience and purpose in their writing
Like:
-Bring the world together to get kids writing
-Writing primarily
-Can include other topics in the writing
Like:
-Makes classrooms “flat”
-Easy to make connections with other students around the world
Dislike:
-Never enough time to spotlight everyone!
Dislike:
-Besides main page, not as easy to navigate
Wiki-

Terry the Tennis Ball


-Students collaborated to write a choose your own adventure story in a wiki
Like:
-I LOVE this idea and I am definitely doing this with my kids in the fall
-Writing fiction stories
Like:
- Kids can see their writing online in an authentic place


Dislike:
-The one story is the only thing on this wiki
-Could include more writing

Dislike:
- Stories are too short. Much more could have been done with this idea

Wiki-

3rd Grade Wiki



-A wiki for a teacher to share resources with her students
-Very minimal and not used to it’s full potential
Like:
-Lots of navigation tabs
Resources are placed in folders online for students to access
Like:
-Lots of tabs

Dislike:
-I don’t like the PBWorks format as much
-Kind of boring layout
Dislike:
-Not very much content on this wiki


Wiki-

Stanley Yelnats
A wiki for the book Holes


-Information on their book club book, Holes.
-Looks like a final projet
Like:
-Good layout
-Easy to navigate
-Includes pictures

-Reading: Holes
Like:
-Lots of student created content



Dislike:
-Could do more reading projects on the one wiki
Dislike:
-I don’t know which student wrote which part. I would like to see author names

I like how in the instructions it said “As teachers, we rely on sharing and borrowing information from colleagues in the field.” I always say that there is no such thing as stealing in the education field, only borrowing. Two heads are always better than one and using the Internet, thousands of heads are much better than one. I get so many of my teaching ideas from perusing teaching blogs, wikis, and websites online.
The East Dragon Den blog is absolutely amazing. I saw the teachers in charge of it present at the Technology In Education Conference a few weeks ago.  They gave a three-hour presentation and I wanted to keep hearing more from them. The technology they use in their classrooms is incredible.
I love the idea of the Terry the Tennis Ball wiki, but I don’t think it was implemented very well. My students love the choose your own adventure books and I’m sure they would love a project like this.


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