Wikispace
The amazing thing about wikispaces is that you, as an instructor, can create a closed environment for you and your students to work together on projects that you can bring to the entire class. “Wikis are a collection of web pages located in an online community that encourage collaboration and communication of ideas” (Roblyer & Doering, 223). One wikispace that I found structured correctly for a classroom dynamic is http://bhsenglish.wikispaces.com/summer_reading. Summer readings are essential for English teacher’s to jump starting their school year and connecting to new students through webbased learning. On their page they include an area designated for essential questions about the summer readings. When building an online resource the content should engage the student, “rather than presenting content to the learner, online content must purposefully and strategically engage the learner” (226). This is why when formatting an online space like Wikispace it is always important to think about the audience you are trying to engage.
Web-based Lesson
In my classroom I can see myself utilizing Electronic Penpals or "Keypals." http://www.theteacherscorner.net/penpals/ is a perfect website for penpals, the teacher can designate the age group and what part of the world they want to communicate with. This would be considered a form of "Interpersonal exchange-- Students communicating via technology with other students of with teachers/experts" (239). I would give guideline to my students on what kind of content is appropriate to discuss while still allowing them the freedom to have dairy-like entries. I would also give specific prompts to the students, in relation to what we were focusing on in class.
Widget 1
The fist widget that I chose is a useful tool called Feedzilla. Feedzilla is a live news feed of current events in the US. When creating your personal Feedzilla the user can pick special categories to focus on certain events. For example my Feedzilla is specified to update on Art and Literature. In my opinion current events should always be incorporated into the classroom. When using internet tools "the Internet should not be thought of as an end in itself; the activity should accomplish some objective or purpose in the required school curriculum (238). An assignment that I would give is to have my students pick one News article to read and write a response to; not only does this assignment focus on reading and writing skills but its informative and gets students interested in current events that affect their life.
Widget 2
Cbox is a widget that functions as a chatroom where your
students can post questions or responses of the learning material.
"Chatrooms are Internet locations that allow 'live' communications between
two or more users" (223). This would be useful when dealing with distances learning or web-based lessons. It also allows for the students to collaborate in a controlled environment where the teacher can still observe.
