Chapter 6-Community Building With Technologies

In class we talked about the issue of social skills and the ability to act socially acceptable on a one-to-one basis. We talked about this because the increase in social software on the internet. The first part of the chapter talks about different social software that includes blogs, podcasts, wikis and social networking spaces like Facebook and Myspace. Because of this class I have been able to experience most of these examples. I actually have grown to like the blogging idea. I think that it is a great way to let people know what is going on in my life and more importantly in my classroom in the future. I think that this is a very useful tool to use in the classroom to connect the users (parents and students to the teacher and the class organization).

One thing that the chapter discusses are knowledge base Forums. It is a collaborative database that supports shared process of knowledge building, by defining problems, hypothesizing, researching, collecting information, collaborating and analyzing. There are two important features, they are a special computer program for developing a common information base installed on a local area network or on a remote server accessible through the Internet. The other important feature of the Knowledge based Forums is that it is a systematic model of inquiry based on the scientific method and informed by current research in cognitive psychology. I like the idea of Knowledge based forums. Its another way that students can teach the technologies instead of the other way around. I like that they are all contributors on this website. This kind of site empowers students because their opinion counts. I like this idea too because it is a great way for students to share what they know, I like how they can share notes, questions and ideas. I like how this chapter talks about encouraging students to make school more meaningful by being mindful and goal directed. When they are teaching with the technologies, they are not just sitting behind a screen answering questions in a box or just simply pushing a couple of buttons, they are not going to learn that content.

Wikis are another way to help students connect and make learning meaningful. Before this class I was unaware of what a wiki really was. I knew of Wikipedia like anyone else but I did not know that the term wiki was actually something that was out there on the web for people to use. I really love the concept now. It is a great way to communicate and help keep in touch and organized with class. I see how I can use this in my classroom. Similar to the blog idea in the first paragraph, I could create a class wiki (similar to our in class) and put what we do each day for the parents to access. I really like that idea because I want my parents to be well aware of what we do in class and how they can continue the education at home. I really can see how this can change the way I teach in the future. Before reading and learning about Wikis I had all intentions to send out newsletters each month or something similar but now that I have these different tools that I can use it is really helpful. It provides me with less work and it provides the parents a great way to find out what their students are doing each day. I know when I was young, my mom and dad would ask what I did at school and I would say nothing or I played on the playground. I think that parents will really appreciate the daily schedule to help them feel more confident in my teaching abilities and the content that their students should be learning.