The WebQuests are another tool that I am a little hesitant about at this point, but absolutely see the utility in. However, the WebQuest we completed in class about the various WebQuests showed me that there are a lot of things that can go wrong with them and that it might be difficult to find an appropriate WebQuest to use in my elementary classroom. It is my hope that as I do a little more digging around the Internet I will find some good ones to use as I think they could be a really neat tool to incorporate into a lesson.
Google docs is an application that I really like using and immediately found the usefulness for without the headaches. In the past when I have been collaborating with multiple people about a document/project and it kept getting sent back and forth as an email attachment it began to get very hard to keep straight which document was the most current. The Google docs application makes this process extremely simple as it is continuously in it's most up-to-date form and easily accessible. Even the little bit of time we had in class last week to start our partner lesson plan, I feel that we were able to accomplish so much by being able to see (almost instantaneously) what the other person was doing and what they had added/changed.
I am excited to continue working on these applications and hopefully I will begin to feel better about them in the near future. I am also excited to see what other tools the Internet and the computer have to offer me in helping me to become a better, more efficient and technology savvy teacher.
Amy, This is an excellent example of reflective practice -- describing your experiences with the technology and evaluating the experience and its impact on your growth and future practice. I would encourage you to remember that your experience with the elementary wiki is pretty extreme -- like herding cats. The research on wikis and teacher classroom practice (and student achievement) is still pretty slim; it would be nice to get our hands on some research that discusses the effect of a large (or unwieldy) number of community members. At what point do collaboration and community knowledgesbases prove ineffective or more trouble than they are worth? You might try talking to some of the smaller curriculum groups (such as English, art, or music) to gauge their reaction to the wiki experience.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you in regard to the potential pitfalls of wiki development. The applications themselves have their nonintuitive quirks, and our operating paradigm for wikis have a lot of development in front of them before we'll understand how to get the most out of them.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to have the opportunity to "get messy" and experiment with wiki applications before I enter the classroom and have even less time for exploration.
Good point, Maria makes. This is THE time for experimentation and play. I don't know if I can emphasize the need for play too much. The equation for successful technology implementation must include TIME + FREEDOM TO PLAY. (You can't play if you don't have time.) Content-area knowledge and sound instructional strategies fit in there somewhere, too! ;)
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