Wiki is Wonderful

This week we created a class wiki in which we shared information about our hobbies, our experiences with children, and our desire to teach. Again, I found the introduced tool easy to use. I worked on the wiki for fifteen minutes in class and had nearly completed the assignment. Things ran smoothly because we were working on setting the wiki up collaboratively, which is ironically the main purpose of this tool. We learned that collaboration can still place once you have left the classroom setting. We completed our individual pages at home but were able to make additions to the group page from completely different locations and at any time we pleased.

We encountered some problems on Wednesday, however, when we were editing the homepage. Someone accidentally changed the link address to the homepage, which subsequently made some of the "Back to Homepage" links on our individual pages not work. Next time, I think it is probably a better idea for us to set up the homepage before we start adding additional pages. This will eliminate the possibility for link issues, at least in the sense in which they occurred this time around.

Within my future classroom, I can see utilizing wikis in various ways. For example, I could set up a study guide and assign each student a page/ question to work on. When each student has completed their part, the entire class will have a collaborative study guide in which they can use to prepare for a test. This of course is something that would be most effective within an upper elementary grade. Should I be placed in a younger classroom, I am not certain of how I could really use wiki effectively. Obviously I could have a frequently asked questions page for the parents, but I'm not sure of how to get younger children engaged with this tool. If anyone has some ideas, feel free to share!

I almost forgot! Here is the link to our first wiki!

Blogging About Blogging

It seems a little unorthodox to write a blog about my experiences creating my blog! However, I feel that blogging about blogging will fit well on my page. The creation of this blog was extremely easy. I have a Facebook so I barely had to follow the instructions given in the TPTE packet. Blogger does a great job of making the creation process straight-forward and user friendly. One thing that I don't like are the design choices. There doesn't seem to be a great selection of themes, which is disappointing for those of us who would like a little individualism.

Through the creation of this blog, I learned that I should not be so afraid of trying new things on the web. I continue to learn about the vast resources available through web use on a daily basis as I work through this course. When I create my professional blog in the future, I will do one thing differently. I will make my own theme design in order to personalize my page. In my professional practice, I will use a blog to reflect on daily activities in the classroom, record field trips, and post important messages for parents.

I am... a blogger??

Welcome all to my blog- my first ever! I am really excited to embark on this journey through TPTE 486. By the end of the course, I will hopefully have a greater understanding of integrating technology into the elementary classroom. Ideally, I will develop the basic skills needed to apply these techniques within my own classroom in the future. I hope the presentation of my projects on this blog will serve as a representation of my hard work and willingness to learn more about technological application. I would also like to network with other students studying elementary education at the University of Tennessee, and this will provide an ideal outlet! I look forward to posting another blog in the near future!