Thursday, October 19, 2006

Today I will be giving a presentation to parents about Web 2.0 and how that will help create 21st Century Learners at H.E. McCracken. I started out by creating a Power Point and thought I would do the Power Points handouts option when printing. Then it hit me, create a wiki. I saw David Warlick use a wiki to provide what he called "online handouts". So I decided to create online handouts using a wiki.

To start with, I created a new wiki page at my site at www.PBWiki.com. The first thing I wanted to do was upload the Power Point so people could review the slides at their leisure if they wanted to. Then I thought I would add some links to some web sites that would be helpful. Next, I give brief explanations about various Web 2.0 tools with a link for more information. By the time I was done with the wiki, it had seven sections and the wiki looked more like an essay done by someone who did not know what the MLA Handbook for Writing is for.

However, I liked what I saw. Here was a basic research essay with annotations but not referenced the correct way. This, I believe is even better because the references were links to respective web pages that had information I was searching work. If you want to check out an article I referenced then all you have to do is click on the link. Another thing I like about the wiki is I can put it down for awhile then take it back up when new information is availible. I have already updated one section twice with information from articles published today. Now the best thing about a wiki is of course you can invite others to participate in the process. Some readers may have more information or better expertise on certain parts of you wiki. All they have to do is go into the edit screen and post the changes. I have done a technology plan by wiki with a committee having rights to make changes. However, right now I think I will keep this wiki all to myself.

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