New Literacy: Blogs, Wikis, and Nings! Oh My!

Blogging is not what I usually think of when I think 'new.' It has been around since I was in high school. I even kept a few of my own for a time. According to Richard T. Vacca, Jo Anne Vacca, and Maryann Mraz's Content Area Reading eleventhedition, 'Teachers are now assigning students to read preselected blogs related to class projects, make comments on the blogs, and then report back to the class.” This use of blogging is something that is akin to the making a website” option of the early 2000s where students could make a website as a way of doing a presentation or a reading summary. Blogs end up being a bit more formal than the discussion board posting but less formal than a full presentation. The blog format might even produce results better than a paper. The use of pictures in a blog can ease the amount of writing by allowing students to post a picture rather than describe something. Also, with an image embedded right next to the picture, students can write about an image without having to deal with multiple windows. Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz also bring up the ability to create sites that require passwords and allow the teacher to monitor the content. This allows a teacher to grade whenever he or she likes and make sure that criticism is fair and useful. (p. 47-51)

Something I'm less knowledgeable about are Wikis and their educational counterpart Nings. I use them all the time, but I've never had to edit one or even create one. In a class I'm observing, the teacher used them for short story presentations. The students were required to have a story summary, an author bio, a vocabulary list, and a review of the website. A few pictures were required, but I think more could have been added to make the assignment more interesting. This was combined with a presentation on the short story for the class since the class read all the stories prior. It worked well for about half the class. Unfortunately, the other half just read their wiki to the class. This combination was an interesting idea, but it seems that a twine presentation or basic Powerpoint presentation uploaded to a class site might have had similar usefulness.

I like the idea of creating a Wiki for other students in the class to use, but it might be better to use a different tact. The original idea for wikis are as a user updated encyclopedia. So, rather than just have the original students make and present. Why not have the other students propose additions. Despite my limited knowledge I believe that Wikis can be set to hold changes for review. Thus, the students could create their Wiki, then the class could use them for a quickwrite and find and propose changes to certain information. This brings in the concept of peer revision, but in more of a 21st century context. Students can also read what they find useful, and it prevents students from not listening during a presentation. This is something I'll have to look more into for my future class presentations.

Electric Learning: New Reviews

3.5 inch floppy disks, Photo by: HNF

Technology is something that has always had to struggle in the classroom. Its ability to distract has been almost comparable to its ability to elevate learning. In the early 2000s I managed to convince my parents that I should be in the new 'laptop class' that was being offered at Mission Viejo High School. Back when one gigabite of storage was huge, and I busily burnt files CDs to free up space on my laptop, kids would play online games in class and 'tab out' when the teacher approached. Nowadays, kids have it easy. The devices are small enough to hide in a pocket and lock quickly enough that even if handed over to a teacher, that teacher will likely never know what was really going on. These are the thoughts that spring to my head before I remember that we made virtual portfolios and typed up papers in class. Now, I watch students grab a classroom Netbook and type together onto the same GoogleDoc, as they did during the writing lesson mentioned in “Teaching Creativity?” I've seen the unease that older teachers have with computers, but I question whether that is still warranted. In my English 457 teaching credential class at Cal State Long Beach, our professor, Dr. Hseih introduced a class on the various apps that could be used. After some struggling with my iPhone, one caught my eye.

Photo By: Amazon.com

Goodreads is a reading app. I use the website version to keep track of what I read and how I feel after reading something, but I'd never considered using it in the classroom. One of my classmates was unfamiliar with the program, so I described it as a rating website where one could rate a book (using 1-5 stars), tag it with genres, and write a review about it. I also mentioned that others can respond and like reviews. It has been some time since I've written a full review on the website, but I still get notifications in my e-mail every few weeks about people liking one of my old reviews. My classmate said that she'd had a similar experience with writing an Amazon review from “To Kill a Mockingbird” where she was amazed at the responses and how many people found her review useful. Writing a book review is by no means a new act, but the interaction is. It is satisfying to know that others react to our thoughts. Now the teacher can easily expand the exercise to the world, and the student can feel the real world impact that a good review can have. It might even lead to the student wanting to read and write more reviews. This might make students prone to criticism, but the Goodreads community tends to be fairly respectful from my experience. Also, the teacher can provide a checklist for what makes up a good review which should limit the amount of harsh criticism a student receives. It could also spark a class discussion about what criticism is and how it can be constructive. If the students link it to their e-mail, they'll get an update whenever someone likes or comments on their review. It might even cause a student to return to reading years down the road or allow them to examine how their thoughts change if they read a book again as an adult like having an electronic time capsule that others can interact with.