Learning and Incorporating Blogs and Wikis into the Classroom

Before last semester, I had never used, let alone heard of a wiki before. We had to use them in an online class that I was taking. I enjoyed being able to see everyone's thoughts and writings about each of the topics that we were given. Wikis allowed us to put our writings together and allowed us to give our peers different ideas for their writing. Since I have only used wikis once, I'm sure that I don't know everything there is to know about them just after one semester, which makes me want to work with them more in order to learn more about them. The more that I learn about wikis now, the better I will be able to help students in my future classrooms learn how to use them as well so that they can collaborate with their peers on different writing pieces. I want my students to have the chance to read others writings and be able to give them  their ideas about their writing. And since every update you make to your writing is saved, it makes it easy for students to go back to anything they need to so that they can see what they previously wrote.  

Another digital tool that I have had little to no practice with are blogs. Yes, I have heard of blogs before, but before this semester I have never used blogging before. In the beginning of this class, I had a few glitches with blogger since it was the first time that I had ever used it. However, I am finally starting to figure it all out and I am actually starting to see all the benefits that blogging can have for both students and teachers when it comes to writing workshop. I enjoy being able to continue my writing at home and then posting it so that others can read it and comment on it with their own thoughts and ideas. It also allows the teacher extra time to read every students writing on their own time and give the student feedback just like they would in a face-to-face conference. As Hicks says on p. 37, by having writings and responses captured digitally it "provides a permanence that talk during a face-to-face conference does not".  It also allows us to pause and reflect on what others have to say. From the time I have spent so far blogging, I could really see myself using this in my future classrooms. I think that it is a great idea to have everything electronically saved so that it is easy to access it whenever needed. The best thing that I found that I like about blogs so far is that as soon as you post it, it is date stamped so that it is easy to find in the future if necessary.

In the past two semesters, I have learned about how to use two new digital tools. I think that they are both very valuable and beneficial to both students and teachers and they are both something that I want to incorporate into my classrooms someday. When it comes to writing workshop, I would for the most part like to give my students the freedom to choose the topics that they want to write about so it will drive them to better writing. I would encourage my students to look at others writings and post their thoughts and any ideas that they may have for their peers. I will want my students to take part in collaborative writing as well and to do this I would post weekly wikis that the students would be responsible for completing. I feel very excited about trying this in my own classroom someday and I can't wait to be able to do so. 

Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.