Social Bookmarking

 

Social Bookmarking

 

The concept of shared online bookmarks dates back to April 1996 with the launch of itList, the features of which included public and private bookmarks. Within the next three years, online bookmark services became competitive, with venture-backed companies such as Backflip, Blink, Clip2, ClickMarks, HotLinks, and others entering the market. They provided folders for organizing bookmarks, and some services automatically sorted bookmarks into folders (with varying degrees of accuracy).

Social Bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them. Descriptions may be added to these bookmarks in the form of metadata, so that other users may understand the content of the resource without first needing to download it for themselves. Such descriptions may be free text comments, votes in favor of or against its quality, or tags that collectively or collaboratively become a folksonomy. Folksonomy is also called social tagging, "the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content".

In a social Bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine. As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation and groups or other social network features.

Many educators use Bookmarks or Favorites in their personal browsers to save Web sites they use frequently in class or at home. But, what if you've saved a site on your home computer and want to find that Web site while you're at school? Or say you want to share your bookmarked sites on Edgar Allen Poe with other teachers? The typical bookmark/favorite system doesn't work for these scenarios. Also, because you can put these bookmarked sites into folders that you label with a name like "Osmosis sites" or "Civil War Documents," there is some minimal organization, but it's fairly limited. For example, if a site has both an interactive tool on alliteration and good biographical material on Langston Hughes, do you put it your Langston Hughes folder or your Alliteration folder -- or do you put it in two folders and save it twice? What if there are not just two savable aspects of that site, but also five or ten great things on very different topics? How many times do you bookmark the site and how many folders do you create? The answer to that question is to consider using social Bookmarking. That technique uses a Web-based service instead of your browser to save and organize bookmarks. Instead of individually saving the site in a variety of folders, you just type a few keywords called tags (Langston Hughes, alliteration, Black History, metaphor, rubric, and so on.), and your sites are organized automatically with sites saved by other users, using those same keywords. You even can see a list of your saved bookmarks, not just by alphabetical order, but also by how often you use a given tag. So, you know at a glance that you already have a lot of information on World War II, but not nearly as much on the Spanish-American War. Thus you benefit from the research of others, while having a far more dynamic and helpful system of organization.

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.education-world.com

www.classroom20.com

www.slideshare.net

www.teachinghacks.com

 

 

 

Google Sites

Google Sites

Google Sites is a structured wiki offered by Google. It was launched on February 28, 2008. Google Sites started out as JotSpot, a software company that offered enterprise social software. The product was targeted mainly at small-sized and medium-sized businesses. In February 2006, JotSpot was named part of Business 2.0, "Next Net 25" and in May 2006, it was honored as one of InfoWorld's "15 Start-ups to Watch". In October 2006, Google acquired JotSpot and by February 2008, Google Sites was unveiled using the JotSpot technology. The service was free, but users needed a domain name, which Google offered for $10. However, as of May 21, 2008, Google Sites became available for free separately from Google Apps, and without the need for a domain. However, Mobile SMS verification is required for fraud prevention.

Google Sites offers the following features: Ability to create full copies of sites, including copying from Google Apps to Sites (and vice versa); Ability to insert Videos from Google Video YouTube, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Maps, AdWords and AdSense (none by default). There are no ads displayed by default. 100 MB of storage (for free account) and 10 GB of storage for Google Apps users non-collaborators cannot add anonymous comments (only invited people can "write" to site.) No RSS feeds are necessary for site updates. Only provided site themes and structure (limited customization is available, colors, font-type, font-size, no CSS, no JavaScript, etc.) can be utilized. A web address of http://sites.google.com/site/sitename/ must be used. A site can also be displayed on a custom domain (e.g. www.example.com, www.wiki.example.com, www.support.example.com), but you must own the domain and have access to change the CNAME records. Google site permits the creation of a secure group website.

The Castilleja School 8th grade class in Palo Alto, California, used a Google site as a collaborative travel journal to document and share their class trip to Washington DC. They posted photos using Picasa, archived their nightly live "Down Low from DC" broadcasts using Google Video, and posted updates using the announcements feature in Google Sites. Castilleja used the list page template to link to their Twitter stream of student and teacher updates. The Google Site helped the 8^th grade class present and share in a very nice way their journey through the historical Washington DC area with our school community back in Palo Alto, California. The students Washington DC activity project were a demonstration of the constructivist school of learning. The instructor was an advisor and facilitator role and the student learner were the center of the learning.

 

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.EducationalNetworking.com

www.google.com/site/teacher13

 

Social Networking

Social Networking

            The first public use social networking website Classmates.com began in 1995. In 2005, MySpace grew 400 % with 28 million people most under 30 years of age. There were 19 million registered online to Friendster with most college students logging on Facebook. Social Networking is socializing with people online via a particular Web site. The online social networking community users share and explore common interests and activities. Chat line, messaging, email, video, file – sharing, blogging, forums, discussion groups, and applications are varies ways for users to interact.

            There are social networking websites that focus on particular interests and there are others that do not. A few popular social networking websites include MySpace, FriendWise, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, Facebook, Orkut, and Classmates. Without a main focus social networking websites have open memberships. Membership is available to all no matter what their beliefs, professions, or views are. Once a member you can create your own network of friends and exclude other web site members.

            The advantage for website social networking is having potential of getting results is almost limitless. The reason your profile and the profile of others are available for review. Knowing who is who, what they can do, where they are, who they know, where they have been, and what they know is useful information to facilitate your successful endeavors.

            As an educator Dana Lawit is passionate about finding meaningful ways to integrate technology into teaching and learning. As a special education teacher at a new and growing public high school in Brooklyn, New York she introduced a social network as a tool to support student learning and promote engagement

When I asked my ELA summer school students, "Have any of you ever heard of MySpace?" they couldn't figure out how to react. Was their teacher so out of it that's she's never heard of MySpace, or worse yet, did she think that they've never heard of MySpace. "Are you joking, Miss?" one student asked. I told my students it was a simple question, and they began to nod their heads that they had indeed heard of MySpace...duh. We discussed how MySpace, like Facebook, is an example of a social network. I then asked them how they would feel about using a social network like MySpace or Facebook for learning and they seemed skeptical. Sites like MySpace and our district’s proxies block Facebook, and our students are well aware of this. How could a social network be used for learning? At their core, social networks are a platform for individuals to form communities of interest. I explained that we would be creating a social network to discuss the book we'd be reading in our summer school class.

I decided to use Ning allows users to create their own networks around a particular topic. We created a private Ning site (similar to the more commercial MySpace and Facebook) for our students to discuss the book we were studying, “Island of the Blue Dolphins.” After reading certain chapters students logged onto the site and participated in discussion forums designed to support them in reflecting upon what they read and deepen their understanding of the content.

Soon some exciting things began to happen. First, timestamps indicated that students were accessing the site out of school, and completing assignments. This is an exciting observation for teachers to witness with any student, but seeing these students in particular, who so often seemed disengaged and not invested in school, get excited enough to work from home on an assignment was incredible! Next students starting going beyond the request of me, their teacher and began contributing to the site independently. Students figured out that the site was similar to other social networks they were already a part of, and something clicked inside - they wanted to contribute. The next thing I knew, my co-teacher and I weren’t the only ones leading the learning. Unprompted, the students eagerly began posting their own questions and reactions. If they had finished a part of the book early, they wanted to know if others had. Students began befriending each other, and even the principal.

Perhaps one of the most unexpected benefits of using the Ning was the ability for teachers to give individual feedback to students. The messaging system in Ning allowed my co-teacher and me to send words of encouragement, reminders about assignments, and updates about classwork. There's even a feature that allows users to invite students to events. We invited all of our students to attend a Vocabulary Quiz last week, and they all RSVP yes! All in all, our Ning site proved a great way to engage students in work I have found them reluctant to do otherwise.

The teacher’s approach falls into cognitivist, constructivist, and connectivist schools of learning. Creating an online social network meets students half way. Many students are already using the internet and technology to communicate with their peers and are consequently quite fluent with the nuances of adding friends, replying to messages, and checking for updates. Educators can appreciate the engagement of students, their independent drive, and the unexpected conversations and reflections that occur even away from school. Educators will professional benefit from different types of data they're able to collect from their students and different avenues with which to provide feedback, either messages to the whole class or just to an individuals.

 

www.orgnet.com

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.whatissocialnetworking.com

www.netlingo.com

www.ellclassroom.wordpress.com

www.theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Social Media

Social Media

 

Chris Shipley, Co-founder and Global Research Director for Guidewire Group was credited to have coined the term “social media”. Social media has steadily risen since July 2006. Social media is creative publishing techniques using the Internet to disseminate media for social interaction. Social media components consist of art, information, meme concepts; physical, electronic, verbal media; and community engagement, electronic broadcast or physical media such as print.

            Ulysses High School students in Kansas were enrolled in a collaboration program. The program project purpose was designed to teach students how to integrate technology into classroom lesson plans. Students were paired with a teacher to redesign the lesson plan to incorporate technology. The 18-week course began by teaching students the technical skills needed to infuse technology into the curriculum. In addition the students were taught the education and leadership skills needed to create lesson plans that met academic standards.

            Although the students had learn how to use technology there were challenges to come up with a way to present all their teacher’s subject. Finding a project to relate back to English was the most difficult. Art and foreign language subject projects had little difficulty. The lesson plan projects were successful and viewed by other teachers and students.

            Despite the challenges students were faced with during the semester, everyone enjoyed the class and the new opportunities it provided. Students were expected to work independently and were given the creative freedom to present the lesson in their own way. The students were on their own to discover ideas, they learned how to implement techniques, and they learned from the processes.

            During and after the course, the participating students researched, communicated and shared information via Internet, Wikis, YouTube, and Flickr.  After the course project completion thoughts about the lesson were gathered by conducting a survey. The teaching approach falls into the connectivist and constructivist categories. The activities permitted individual users to network and learn with others globally and locally. The activities connected with others around the world sharing their opinions and examining others thinking with the world. Through the interactive process input from different sources created an atmosphere to unlearn old information, learn new information, and learn current information. The learners constructed personal knowledge from the experience.

 

www.wikinvest.com

www.webtrends.about.com

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.4teachers.org

 

 

Google Docs

Google Docs

       Google Docs is a free Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application tool. This tool originated from merging Writely and Spreadsheets features into a single product on October 10, 2006. A third product for presentations designed by Tonic Systems was incorporated and Google released the product on September 17, 2007.

       Google Docs is Googles’s software as a service. Documents, spreadsheets, forms and presentations can be created, imported from the web, or sent by email. User’s work can be saved on their computer in several formats and saved to Google servers. The service is supported on browsers running on Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux operating systems. The user can store documents not exceeding 500k, embedded images not more than 2MB each, and spreadsheets limited to 256 columns, 200,000 cells, and 99 sheets. No more than 5,000 documents and presentations, 5,000 images, 1,000 spreadsheets, and 100 PDFs are permitted at a single period of time.

       This web-based service allows documents that can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users and non-users in real time. The service product permits opportunity for people to save valuable time by keeping meeting times to a minimum while working in a group distance apart on a collaborative assignment.

       Teachers can effectively use Google Docs to create a channel of communication between teachers and students, and participants from others outside of the class on any particular assignment.  Students can publish, share, collaborate on documents, presentations, and brainstorming assignments anywhere there is Internet access. Professionally teachers can network with other teachers to solicit ideas, formats, contents, and slogans to specific projects utilizing documents, forms, surveys, and chat-line.

 

www.online-tech-tips.com

www.c41pt.co.uk

www.google.com

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.1st-soft.net

 

 

Podcasting

Podcasting

            Podcasting is a series production of digital media files often audio but they can be video as well. Podcasting is an easy way to communicate ideas and messages reaching anyone with a broadband connection. There are minimal equipment necessities excluding the computer and this allows anyone the chance to transmit their ideas beyond conventional radio broadcasting. Podcasting gives people more control over what they listen to, when they listen, and freedom to access their Podcast choices because it is portable using a portable music player.

Podcasting was coined in 2004, combining iPod and broadcasting. Podcasting was coined by Guardian journalist, Ben Hammersley, and then popularized by media entrepreneur, Adam Curry. Curry along with software developer Dave Winer created an Applescript application to automate the process of downloading and syncing audio files to iPods. The automation application is not exclusive to iPods but can be utilized using any portable digital music player or computer.

You can listen to podcasts with nothing more than your browser, however use of software designed for receiving podcasts would deliver full benefits of Podcasting. To create a podcast show you will need a computer with sound capabilities, podcasting software, a fast Internet connection, and optional, a portable music player.

In an educational setting, Podcasting is used for a variety of purposes for communication to an audience in a classroom, in the school, in the community, and globally. Teachers can record classroom lessons and students can listen to lectures at times that are convenient for them. A podcast can be produced to present a schools profile or classrooms to the community, parents, students, and others globally with the achievements, activities, goals, projects, and strides of the students. With an individual or group assignment, students write subject matter script ideas, create, record, then edit until they’re content with the final recording and share with others the polished podcast. This process promotes learning organizational skills, self-critiquing, and collaboration with others resulting in a gratifying and conscientious podcast project. The constructivist theory and the proposed connectivist theory are both used in the teaching tool in the examples above.

www.jigsaweducation.com

www.oid.ucla.edu

www.castwiki.com

www.wikipedia.org

 

Online Photosharing

Online Photosharing

            Online Photosharing permits a user to publish or transfer their digital photos for sharing with others. Both a website and application is necessary to facilitate the upload and display of images. Photosharing online sites provide multiple viewing techniques such as thumbnails, slideshows, and classifying photos into albums with annotations such as captions or tags. Photosharing online is not limited to the web and personal computers but is compatible to use with portable devices such as cell phone cameras with application that can transfer photos as they are taken.

            The first Photosharing site originated during the mid 1990’s from services providing online photo finishing. Among the first providers were Webshots, SmugMug, Yahoo!_Photos or Flickr. Each photo sharing service is different, but they all offer upload forms with the ability to browse to images on your own computer, in order to select the images that you would like to share. Photosharing service providers post images to a web site on the Internet except for Picasa, which shares images over the Internet and uses your own computer to host them. There are Photosharing sites that host videos such as Flickr and Youtube.

Although Online Photosharing is convenient and seemingly harmless safeguards should be considered: 1) Unless you took a photo, someone else potentially owns that photo and has the rights to it. Be sure that when you photo share, you do not share a photo that has a copyright unless you have permission to share it. 2) More importantly keep in mind that parents or guardians of minors should always be notified if a photo of their child is to appear in any publication including online publication.

Educators can use Photosharing tools to showcase student's talent. After projects are completed a snapshot of the finished product can be uploaded and saved as apart of a complete portfolio. If students want to catch their work in live action, video footage can be selected verses still image. Flickr service allows you to embed photos in a blog, web site and share them via RSS. It’s a great way to give parents a peek into their student’s school day, school events, and other school related activities. Photos can be emailed to family and friends, or even embedded into other websites. Students that are interested in journalism can also use a mobile phone to capture news and events on the go. The photos can automatically be sent immediately for all to see on the web. Such online social networking tools like Flickr, Youtube, Picasas, and Utterz can be used in a positive, fun, interactive and educational manner. It allows students to showcase their talents, spread news and awareness, and have confident ownership in their academic accomplishments.

            When an educator’s teaching activities encompass Online Photosharing the schools of learning used are cognitive, constructivism, and connectivism theories. The learner who is a field-dependent type will appreciate the opportunities having their work shared and exposed to others for criticism and praise. The resulting effects would encourage the learner to improve or sustain their perfected qualities. Collaborative and cooperative learning is encouraged for the learner by utilizing the strengths of other learners and learn from others while working in a group. The learners function in a networked world where they learn at anytime and from anywhere.

 

www.flickr.com

www.associatedcontent.com

www.pictures4school.org

www.teachinghack.com

www.wikipedia.org

 

 

 

Virtual Classroom

Virtual Classroom

A virtual classroom is where a learning environment is created allowing students and instructors to participate in remote learning communities using personal computers. The learning environment exists solely in digital content that is stored and accessed through networked computer and information systems.

The virtual classroom occurs in a non- physical environment and students access the classroom connecting to the Internet rather than traveling to a physical classroom. Another advantage is the flexibility and adaptability to being available 24/7 and accessible to more student enrollment than traditional classroom courses.  Disadvantages are the lack of face-to- face interaction and lacking social physical interaction. In the virtual classroom the communication tool is regular chat room interaction and discussions which lack body language, eye contact, and verbal and visual cues which help defines meaning to written text.

Hybrid classes can be the best of both worlds if the online portion of the course is not utilize only for submitting assignments. Face-to-face class time should be used to explore connectedness to the subject content and not just for returning assignments, issuing new assignments, and looking at movies. If all students had the same resources availed to them much of all assignments could be completed and the face-to-face class time would be enhanced with other supporting resources for the learners to comprehend the course contents.

 

www.ehow.com

www.wikipedia.org

www.wiki,media-culture.org

www.scis.nova.edu

 

 

 

BLOGS

Blogs

Blog is short for weblog. Most blogs are primarily textual however some focus on art, photographs, videos, music and audio. Blogs are personal journal entries posted in reverse-chronological order. In the 1990’s blogging was credited to Dave Winer, Jorn Barger, and Justin Hall. Winer’s Scripting News is recognized as being one of the oldest and longest running weblogs. Hall began personal blogging in 1994 as student at Swarthmore College. Barer coined the term “weblog” on 17 December 1997.

In the classroom, blogs can be a useful tool to connect individual classroom participants who ordinarily would not engage in an activity. Opportunity and willingness to read and write will increases through peer mentoring. A blog can help students process their thoughts and ideas for analysis. While perceiving new ideas student can move ahead with their thinking towards transformation in learning. New ideas are meaningful to students only when directly applied in real life contexts of practice and use. With a blog, every student has multiple opportunities to share their thoughts. An instructor can offer instructional tips and other students can as well submit comments and suggestions to an original entry.

The Virtual Classroom in Illinois teacher Mrs. Barnstable provides a basic structure however the students must take responsibility for finding and implementing feasible research and production solutions. Mrs. Barnstable’s whole theory on teaching is the students teach other students. Everybody has their own skills and they share them with everybody else in the room. Encouraging students to go to one another for help gives these students a refreshing attitude: they acknowledge when they do not know something, aren’t afraid to ask for help, and are in turn, be charitable in teaching skills they do possess. A student named Pete express the positive affect of Mrs. Barnstable’s idea of asking other students. He says, “Sometimes when a teacher explains it to you, it’s a bit confusing. But then when one of your fellow classmates explains it to you, you understand it better because they have a better sense of what you can and can not understand.” Mrs. Barnstable teaching approach is a combination of constructivism and connectivism theories. Learners experience online instruction information first-hand which gives them the opportunity to contextualize and personalize the information themselves. Furthermore, students will also be able to use the strengths of other learners, and learn from others. Allowing learners to use blogs for communication and the World Wide Web for research students can connect to others around the world according to the connectivist theory.


http://wapedia.mobi
http://wikipedia.org
http://ebiquity.umbc.edu
http://www.4teachers.org/kidspeak/barnstable

WEB STRATEGIES

Web Search Strategies

Web Search Strategies are tried and tested ways to use search engines to find information on the web. The strategies demonstrate best ways to reduce useless results. They are guidelines for researching topics and utilizing the most creditable and appropriate resources available. Tactical skills used for the best retrieval of information are: knowing how search engines work, picking the right key words, using quotes and the minus sign, combining of strategies, use a variety of search tools, and evaluate research findings. Web search engines are designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are presented in a list called hits. The information may consist of images, information and other types of files. Search engines operate with a mixture of algorithmic and human input.
The very first tool used for searching on the Internet was Archie. The name stands for "archive" without the "v." Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in, Montreal created it in 1990. Martijn Koster first announced in November 1993 his development of ALIWEB (Archie Like Indexing for the WEB) and it is considered the first Web search engine. ALIWEB was presented in May 1994 at the First International Conference on the World Wide Web in Geneva. ALIWEB preceded WebCrawler by several months.
Nearing the end of the 21st Century 1st decade, three web search engines have been launched in 2009 that are purportedly demonstrate features that are to improve World Wide Web information search. The search engine Bing was launched in May 2009 with notable changes. They include the listing of search suggestions in real time as queries are entered and a list of related searches based on semantic technology. Bing also includes the ability to save and share search history file. Yebol is a search engine developed as artificial human intelligence that automatically cluster and categorize search results, web sites, pages, and contents that it presents in a new innovative visually indexed format more aligned with initial human intent. It aims to eliminate the need for refined, secondary, or advanced search steps, as by Google and Yahoo. Mugurdy is a visual search engine that launched in July 2009. In addition to textual results of search queries it shows a screenshot of each webpage.
Diane Tinucci teaches Language Arts (AP Literature and Honors Freshman) half the school day ay Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri in addition to helping teachers implement technology in their curricula. Ms. Tinucci has an acute understanding regarding Web site evaluation and the necessity to present information to the high school students. At one time or another they will be required to complete a research project. These student are technologically savvy but do not have a clue about the merits of thousands Internet searches hits. It has been seen over and over how student’s copy down lists of URLs to turn in as their projects’ source list. Their mind set is it was displayed on the monitor it must authentic and valid. Student Internet research users lack good judgment in picking and choosing sites on which to base research projects for the following reasons just to name a few: 1) lack of time, 2) lack of understanding of the difference between print and internet publishing, 3) lack of understanding of the need to screen sites, and 4) lack efficient and effective search skills. When she embarks on a Web evaluation education course to teach a CARS Checklist derived from and article, “Evaluating Internet Research Sources is the foundation. The checklist presents four simple criteria for evaluating the worth of Web sites. The acronym translates to:
C = credibility. Is the article trustworthy and authored by an expert?
A = accuracy. Is the article up-to-date, factual, and comprehensive?
R = reasonableness. Is the article fair and objective?
S = support. Does the research and example substantiate what is said?
To assist faculty and students even further she created a related lesson on Missouri’s SuccessLink Web site and created a Power Point presentation offering high points of the Web evaluation lesson, so teachers could present the material themselves.
http://eduscapes.com
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listwebsiteje.html.
http://4teachers.org/testimony/tinucci/index.shtml

WEB

The Web

The World Wide Web www is a graphical interface to Internet resources. Web refers to the set of hypermedia pages accessible via the Internet. Nearly twenty years ago, a 25-year-old computer consultant named Tim Berners-Lee gave birth to a revolution that has set out universe into a limitless communication highway. His thoughts began with wanting to better organize the files on his computer. Over a ten-year period he worked out a system code HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), it’s the highlighted links you click on. HTML is still functions of the Web today. Then he figured how to give each Web site a static address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator), and developed a set of rules for how documents could be linked. Not long after he created the first Web browser, a tool allowing users anywhere to view his creations from their own computers. On November 12, 1990, in a memo he formally proposed his project to his employer in Geneva. By the time he introduced the Web to the public, personal computers had become very popular, so it was easy for people to join it. Within five years the Web had 40 million users. Berners-Lee curiosity and desire to make information accessible to everyone has remained devoted to using the Web to keep the Internet, which was once only a tool of the elite, open to the public masses. The Web has remained virtually boundless and unfettered. Almost everyone has access through the public library, a Star Bucks, at school, or possible even on their own P.C. at home.
The Internet provides opportunities for people to connect to others within a classroom around the world or on a chat room across the United States. Teachers use the Web to share their ideas, lessons plans, classroom projects, and even students’ work. Students benefit because they can share ideas and develop a strong foundation for learning without discriminating factors interfering with the communication process.


http://eduscapes.com
http://outreach.lib.uic.edu
http://www.wpi.edu

WIKIS

Wikis

A wikis is an asynchronous communication technology. The basic idea is that users may engage in the exchange of ideas or information without submissions from others simultaneously. Wikis are used to create collaborative websites, for personal note taking, and to power community websites. Wikis are powered by wiki software. Ward Cunningham is noted as the developer of the first wiki software, which commenced in 1994, and debut on 25 March 1995 as WikiWikiWeb. This software was installed on the Internet domain c2.com. The software was named as a remembrance of a shuttle bus route in Hawaii called the “Wiki Wiki” meaning fast.

A wiki permits documents to be written collaboratively and edited in real-time and appears almost instantly online. Wiki technology tolerates easy creation and modification of any page or complete document. Most wikis allow anonymous editing without an account although registered users have additional editing functions. Liberal editing allowances may lead to more destructive and useless editing to document contents. However, whether a wiki is susceptible to security abuse depends on how open the wiki is.

Wake Forest University posted in the Campus Technology Magazine; a wiki promotes evaluating, synthesizing, elaborating, analyzing, problem solving, decision-making, and knowledge base construction… A 2008 magazine article submission proposed Wikis enable students to collaboratively generate, mix, edit, and synthesize subject-specific knowledge within a shared and openly accessible digital space.

Thomas Elementary School, Mr. Atchison’s Website utilizes a wikispace. One feature his classroom students initiated was a class newspaper. It is organized, written, and updated weekly on the webpage by the students. The teacher’s approach falls in a constructivist category using computer technology for collaborative activities. The students’ educational creation is opened to a wider audience (parents) and the students themselves.

http://cfbstaff.cfbisd.edu/atchisonr/
http://4teachers.org/testmony/barnstable/index.shtml
http://campustechnology.com