Blogs and Wikis in the Classroom

Blogs and wikis are being used in many interesting and innovative way including the ability for students and teachers to communicate both inside and outside of the classroom in a fun and unique way. Both teachers and students can have their own pages to share and their work and ideas. Not only can you see anothers progress you can respond to them as well instantly. Teachers are able to post assignments, as well as links to help the student complete the assignment. They have the opportunity to share endless amounts of information that may not be accessable in the classroom. With the blogs and wikis technology in the classroom students have the opportunity to share their classroom experiences with their parents when they get home. All the student has to do is bring up the teachers page and parents can see everything their child is doing in school.

Aggregators are web applications that feed web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. These could be very beneficial in a classroom setting if the information being viewed was beneficial to the student and teacher. Such information may include the breakfast and lunch schedule, weather, after school programs, or school sponsored events coming up. Besides general information aggregators could be used in specific classrooms such as a world affairs, where the latest news headlines could be fed to the class.

Blogs and wikis in education could be great tools for communication between teachers, students and parents. They are easily accessable and fairly user friendly. Blogs and wikis are also great teaching tools for many computer applications, and would be very beneficial for a microcomputers class. However, blogs and wikis could create a dependency on computers in the classroom if the entire class was based on them. One on one communication is key in the classroom, but blogs and wikis could create a reliance on online communication. While online communication is great and helpful in the classroom we should not use it as the only way for teachers to communiate with students and vice versa.

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

The multiple intelligences I have the most strengths in are kinestetic and intrapersonal where I recieved a score of 100 in both. After reading the characteristics of both intelligences I can see many similarities in my own personality. As a kinesthetic learner I would much rather gain information through feeling, intuition, experiencing and doing. As an intrapersonal learner I will reflect on my learning through thoughts and enjoy studying on my own rather than in large groups.

The core characteristics that best describe me and my learning style are that I do like to be active, and I know that when I am active I am able to retain information much better than if I were sitting in a classroom trying to stay focused on a single person talking. I have a difficult time studying in groups, and rarely am I able to make any progress from them. I study and remember information best when I study alone in a quiet environment.

Students with a kinesthetic learning style enjoy staying active doing hands on activities. They are hands on children that will not do very well in an extremely structured classroom without some variety in their daily routine. As an intrapersonal learner a child may need quiet time within their day to reflect and retain information learned that day. Group work is not always easy for them to share their ideas or gather new information.

Within in my classroom focusing on kinesthetic learning styles will not be a huge issue, since physical education will involve many movements and hands on experiences. There will be times when information will need to be taught however, but it will just be important for me to present it in various ways to reach each student.

Technologies that may stimulate a kinesthetic learner in the classroom may be computer games or music players that allow student's to learn through music and dance. Really any technology that allows a student to experience a more hands on way of learning than lecture and readings.

I will much better be able to impact student learning after applying my new understanding of learning styles and multiple intelligences within my classroom. I now know that it is very important to add variety to your teaching and never teach the same way everyday. Sometimes it is easy to get into a routine of your own teaching style, but that is not teaching to the student. Sometimes teachers must venture out of their comfort zones and get to know their students and the learning environment that is best for them.