Blogs and Wikis in Education

As schools progress toward the 21st century, teachers will begin to rely more on technology than ever before. Technology can make learning fun and interesting for the students, as well as create less paperwork for the teacher. There are many ways that teachers can integrate technology into their classroom, including educational blogs and Wikis, or RSS readers.
Educators have found many innovative ways to use blogs and Wikis. For example, Lewis Elementary school in Oregon has all of their school’s information on a Wiki. This means that students will never have to carry home a newsletter from the PTA or their teacher. Every teacher and specialist has a link to their individual blog on the main page, so parents and community members can assess any information related to the school. Another way to use a wiki is as a class guide or syllabus for older students. “Mr. Welker’s Wikinomics Guide” is a wiki that a high school economics teacher, Mr. Welker, made for his students as an online course guide. Blogs and Wikis are also a terrific resource for teachers. There are many blogs written by teachers to share ideas and experiences.
RSS readers would be a very interesting thing to integrate into classroom curriculum, particularly with older students. In a Current Events unit, a teacher could have each of their students subscribe to different online newspapers that may offer articles that relate to the current events the students are studying. RSS readers could also be used to help students with online research they may do for a project or a paper.
Many parents and educators are concerned about their young students using the internet because of privacy issues. Also, technology use in classroom can be frustrating to some students who do not have access to computers at home. However, with proper instruction and patience from their teacher, even these students can use to use technology proficiently. It will be very useful to students to have computer skills when they reach older grades and in real life.