After reading chapter 4 in Richardson’s text, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, I am becoming more and more excited to try out the technology in a classroom. I was really surprised to find that South Africa has their entire curriculum on a wiki! Other creative ideas came from our home state of Georgia. I thought the idea of the “Flat Classroom,” hinging off of Thomas Friedman’s, The World is Flat, was an excellent idea and one that seems to have produce outstanding results. This is encouraging as a future educator.
However, I do worry about the implications of technology in the classroom. Will our future classrooms become virtual classrooms? Meaning, will we lose the effectiveness of the face-to-face interaction I believe students need to learn. I have felt the effect of this while taking an online class that didn’t sit well with me. It was hard to have meaningful discussions on a discussion board when there was no set time to log on and discuss the material at hand. That is the whole point of having an online class. You mold the time you spend online to your needs and schedule but I just couldn’t help feeling that something was missing and my extra however many hundreds of dollars I paid for the online course was a waste.
With all that being said, wikis are a great tool to use in collaborative learning and a way to reach out to gain new perspectives, whether it be another classroom thousands of miles away or with the person sitting right next to you. I really enjoyed the The Wiki Prayer Richardson shared at the end of the chapter! I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I read it. If I can remember this prayer I will be ok to wiki away the day with no worries!
I tend to agree with you about f2f vs fully online classes…a hybridity of sorts would seem ideal. Wikis would seem to make a virtual project space much more feasible while moving a lot of responsibility, stewardship, and choice to students.
dc