Reflective Blog #3

My Wiki: 

When creating my wiki I wanted it to be beneficial to my students. I wanted my students to be able to utilize the wiki outside of my classroom. I decided to turn it into a virtual classroom word wall. My students can get online at home and go to this word wall to get their weekly vocabulary list. The definitions for the words are posted on the wiki, so the students can study their words right off of the page. This is definitely helpful to the students who “misplace” their written vocabulary words. I have started to implement my idea because I have managed to post all the vocabulary words the students have learned this semester so far and the words they will be learning next week.

Advantages vs. Disadvantages of Wikis:

I believe the advantages to utilizing wikis are that they are user-friendly and can be used for a variety of different tasks. The students can create wikis during a class period because they are so easy to make. The information that is added to a wiki is published instantly and there is no wait or time issue. They can also be used for different assignments from projects to vocabulary lists and even their own personal wiki to organize assignment due dates and tasks they need to complete. The disadvantages are that they can be easily edited and disorganized. The information that students access on a wiki is not always reliable or credible due to the fact that anyone can come on and easily edit a wiki. They can also become disorganized if too much information is added to them. It is easy for the site to get bogged down with a ton of information, and if it is not well organized it would be hard to navigate and this can discourage the students.

The wikis have the potential for engaging the digital natives because they can use them for a variety of different tasks. The wikis are easy to use, so digital natives would have no issue coming up with ways to utilize the wikis for their own personal needs. 

Web 2.0 Technologies: 

In my exploration of the eLearning Tools Wiki I discovered two web 2.0 tools I would like to explore further NoteMesh and Flashcard Exchange. I decided to make my wiki into a classroom word wall for students to utilize it as a study tool. NoteMesh would also benefit the students as a note taking tool. This tool can be accessed at http://notemesh.com/?a=home and it is a way for college students that are taking the same course to share their lecture notes. I think it could be tweaked to work for Middle and High School students as well. The students can post their own notes and combine their notes with other students’ notes. The other tool Flashcard Exchange can be accessed at http://www.flashcardexchange.com/ and the students can create their own flashcards online. The flashcards can be printed or shared and the students can access them from an iPhone or android phone if they would like. This looks like a really neat tool for my students.