So I have to say, I'm really glad that we talked about how to use Google sites in class, and had some hands-on time to mess around with building a site. It seems so intuitive now but when I tried to create one last semester for the class I was teaching I felt like it was really difficult. At the time, eLC was sporadically not working and I had an online assignment scheduled for my 3980 students. I was also travelling and out of e-mail contact on the day that they would be working on the assignment. I was concerned that eLC would be down again and chaos would ensue as students panicked because they couldn't access and complete the assignment. So my back up plan was to create a class wiki. Way harder than I had expected it to be...and the wiki wasn't even really set up how I had envisioned it in my head. It worked, but I wasn't happy with it. Thankfully there were no problems with eLC and the wiki ended up being unnecessary.
Back to the present...I was making it SO much harder than it needed to be. I really enjoyed reading the Frydenberg article, especially the ideas for the different ways a wiki can be used as a collaborative tool. I'm definitely going to create one for my current class before the students start their labs. It's a perfect way for the students to develop the methodology, share data, and help each other answer the lab questions outside of class time. I'm also going to check out Wikimatrix.org. How I wish I would've known such a site existed when I was trying to figure out which wiki to use for my class last semester. In addition to the article, just getting a chance to create a wiki in Google sites was really productive for me. I had already started organizing my teaching portfolio and creating a teaching portfolio website had never even occurred to me. Starting it in class has inspired me to take the time to revamp what I already have compiled. Also, IF I decide to create a wedding site, it should be really easy.
On a side note, I'm also considering having students individually start a blog for their research notebooks in place of having them hand in hard copies. I love how much I'm able to apply from EDHI already to the class I'm teaching. I think using these different technologies will make my life and my student's lives a little easier this semester.
I completely agree about Wikis. I had tried to set one up before but I gave up because I was making it much more difficult. The idea of students blogging their notebooks is a really interesting idea too. I'd be interested to find out how it works for you!
ReplyDeleteI think that Google Sites is a good starting point for an online teaching portfolio, but you should really look into WetPaint if you're trying to start a class wiki. I haven't used in about a year, but I was very happy with it's features and user-friendly setup.
ReplyDeleteYou should check out our groupie's blog. Apparently elc has a blog feature!
ReplyDeletejwo is right! There is a topic type in the Discussions tool that is somewhat like a blog. In our eLC course site, the Discussions topic called, "Hey Sherry..." is a blog-style topic.
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