Post #2-
Judging the Quality of Wikis and Non-vetted Sites
When I need to search for anything, first thing comes to my mind is YouTube. I am a visual learner and I like to see to learn. I consider myself a fan of YouTube, the good thing about it that you can find many videos about the issue you are looking for and you can be selective. The second thing I do is surfing the web sites and of course I visit wiki to read a conclusion of the issue then I go back to the websites to expand in the subject.
I have used YouTube a lot in my classroom, I always chop my YouTube videos using (Tubechop.com), It is a very good site where I can select the part that I want to show, also there will be No advertisements on the side.
I have not used wiki before with my students; I guess because of my students’ age, but I have heard so many criticism about it, which made so careful when I read any information off wiki.
Wikipedia provides Internet users with millions of articles on a broad range of topics, and commonly ranks first in search engines. However, its reliability and credibility fall well short of the standards for a school paper. According to Wikipedia itself, “[W]hile some articles are of the highest quality of scholarship, others are admittedly complete rubbish. … use [Wikipedia] with an informed understanding of what it is and what it isn't.” to read more about this visit:
As educators, we strive to teach our students to be critical thinkers and to evaluate the information they are presented with. We urge them to analyze and to assess. Read another article of “Why should we teach with Wikipedia?”
Here said, we have heard the two sides of should we use Wiki or not as a resource, the teacher have to believe in it to use it into its potential otherwise it will not work.
Using Wiki as a class project or assignment interaction does not apply in my opinion to the fear of using Wikipedia as a source of information. I will personally apply what I am learning in higher education into my classroom and take risks. Our job is to make sure that the students understand the difference between wikipedia and other sources.
I too learned a lot from this prompt and audio recording. Wikipedia I have known for years as a resource by typing in a word I was using as a topic. What I did not know is that Wiki are used for collaborative learning in the classroom. According to the readings, Wiki's has its strengths and weakness, but the research indicates that when Wiki's are created by the students that they can increase their learning engagement.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Blair, I think the most positive thing about Wiki is using it as a Web-based collaboration social academic platform.. Wiki has gradually reshaped people’s understanding and exploitation of the Web. I am looking forward for this new experience to many of us.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the Fu et al reading, I have a better understanding of wikis being a useful tool for information sharing and knowledge construction. This is how I view Wikipedia as a resource for my students. I believe it is useful for knowledge construction and as I mentioned in my post, its the great beginning of content organizing and gathering. I like that you included references with more information about Wikipedia. Since the start of our Wiki project and learning more about Wiki's use in education, is this something you see yourself implementing in your class?
ReplyDeleteYes indeed Kiylise, I feel optimistic toward our wiki project. I am looking forward to implementing this in my classroom. I believe that this Wiki program is very beneficial to our students, regardless of what they are saying about the accuracy of the content, because everything we read or hear about deserve citation.
ReplyDeleteThe primary concern about what tool to use is your intent. If it's collaboration, Google Docs works. If it's for media integration and public sharing, then wikis are potentially a better route to go. Remember, too, that Google Sites could function as a wiki for small collaborative groups. Finally, as I've said, if you're focusing on collaboration, you should be able to assess it, and all of the above have the capability to provide information to the teacher about collaboration.
ReplyDeleteVery good observation. Thank you Dr. Jason.
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