Wikis in Education

Wikis

Wikis are a Web 2.0 tool that allows individuals to collaborate and create web pages that are hearty with content.  Wikis can be accessed by anyone who has a web browser using the internet. This actually means that the content information can be modified at any given time. Overall, groups who use wikis are researching or accessing information on a similar topic or common project. Schools and higher education institutions are using wikis to document meeting notes and agendas. Some schools are using wikis to create eportfolios and collaborate on research projects. Textbook and article critiques are being accessed through wikis.

Educational Apps: Google Education Edition

Educational Apps

Students are using educational apps on smart phones and tablets as an emerging technology tool. These apps are assisting student’s academic performance in schools. There are many benefits of educational apps sponsored by Google apps' Education Edition. This is a free widespread IT solution that can be used by schools and other educational facilities. Google Educational Apps bring collaboration and communication tools to the classroom and manages your data so you can focus all your energy and time on teaching students.

Google Educational apps allow teachers, students, and other employees to effectively share their ideas through powerful sharing and communication tools. The Education Edition provides email, as well as sharable instant messaging tools, online calendars, and a dedicated website which everyone can use for free. There is no need to install any software or hardware because everything comes from a web browser.

Google Education Edition includes a set of tools that can be customized to enable everyone to work together. The entire school can be connected with powerful search, massive storage, and mobile access. There is no cost involved at all, no advertising required, and no costly maintenance of hardware. Gmail offers 7 gigs of storage and has protection against viruses and spam. It's also got video and voice chat, a built-in IM, POP and IMAP message access, and much more. Teachers will find the online calendar a great feature. They can simply access other teachers' calendars to check that no double-bookings for events are scheduled. You can even access the calendar with your cell phone.

You can easily build shared websites that include documents, gadgets, images, and videos. The video function enables you to share videos which people can rate, tag, and comment on. Every domain gets 10 gigs of video space for free. The talk feature facilitates instant free messaging, file transfers, and voicemail.

Google's Groups allow students and staff to create their own forums. The Apps for Education component provides other tools that enable you to easily open APIs (application programming interfaces) so that you can integrate with other IT systems. Teachers and administration staff can create and share documents like reports and spreadsheets which can be accessed through their computers or mobile phones.

In conclusion, one of the major benefits of Google apps is the ability to connect an entire educational environment easily and effectively. Importantly, all the information and communications are private, secure, and safe. Some apps are ideal for classroom settings while others make for great tutors and educational supplements at home.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a system for Internet users to organize, store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. Tagging is also a tool for social bookmarking and it is a significant feature of social bookmarking. It enables users to organize their bookmarks in flexible ways and develop shared vocabularies. Activities like social bookmarking give users the opportunity to express different views on resources that are available online websites that are open to the public. Social bookmarking allows common users to view and create communities. Individuals are able to use folksonomy and tags to identify related topics that were previously researched or used by others. Social bookmarking also allows users to alter their bookmarks due to the ever-changing information that is available online.

Tagging information resources with keywords can lead to changes in the way we research and store information. Flash drives and personal computers can be overloaded with information and the social bookmarking sites allow an individual to retrieve needed information quickly. It may become less important to know and remember where information was found and more important to know how to recover it using a site online that is designed and shared with peers and colleagues. Social bookmarking shortens the allocation of reference lists, bibliographies, papers, and other resources among peers or students. Most social bookmarking sites allow you to browse through the items based on most popular, recently added, or belonging to a certain category like shopping, technology, politics, blogging, news, sports, etc.

Social news is a related tool used for social bookmarking. Social news sites are different from standard social bookmarking sites by focusing on specific articles and blog posts rather than websites. Websites like Digg, Reddit and Propeller focus on social bookmarking of news-related items such as politics, sports, technology, etc. These websites will often feature breaking headlines and bloggers discussing the current news items. They can be a great source of news, and they also offer the ability to participate in the discussion by leaving comments on popular news items.

The social bookmarking site used for this project was Delicious. Delicious is a popular site used by many online users in common social communities. The bookmark stack was created to display a plethora of resources related to technology, education and content information in social studies. The sites are related to teaching materials in American History Part I and II. Some of the online sites provide information to assist students with the AHSGE. Teachers can also access sites related to research, writing, and citing information. This was a great resource project for the class and my personal use. It allowed me to organize the web addresses that I often use in my class instruction and I plan to share the web address with colleagues and department members. I also plan to create a social bookmarking site for my students to access online sites that will assist them in the class materials, assignments, and projects. This assignment is strongly related to my blog address, EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: PREPARING THE 21^ST CENTURY LEARNER.

Access my social bookmark EDL 529 at http://delicious.com/stacks/view/IMIQN6

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

The Benefits of Educational Gaming

As you may know, gaming can spark the attention of any age group; however, educational gaming is a creative tool to use to persuade students into learning. Educators who utilize gaming in their instruction know that students are learning and it is enjoyable. Recent findings from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), nearly two-thirds of households in the USA play video games, and since 1999, the percentage of gamers older than 50 has more than tripled. Researchers have stated that games use new technologies to incorporate principles crucial to human cognitive learning. Games can assist students in using their working memory, improving their abstract reasoning and problem-solving skills, and being creative in cognitive skills.

Educational gaming is also beneficial because it allows students to be interactive in their learning rather than the traditional classroom structure and lecture. Students like competitive learning because everyone wants to be a winner. Educational gaming allows students to be actively engaged and it promotes student involvement in learning. Students who participate in gaming have an essential desire to win; therefore, the students are learning to master the skills needed to succeed. Students are able to interact with gaming material in a practical fashion, instead of simply being presented with the information and asked to retain it.

Gaming promotes teamwork in students and that is a vital tool needed for success in postsecondary education and in the workforce. This method helps students to reach a central goal or solve a problem as a team. In the real world, we often have to work with people we don't like, just like in classroom games, where we are not always teamed with our friends. As students engage in game play through their education, they develop the skills necessary to be a good sportsman. Win or lose, students are still receiving the knowledge or skills to become successful while participating in educational gaming.

Educational gaming is a great problem solving skill. In my tenth grade history class, I allowed the students to solve cases on the First48 website. The students in my community are already tuned in to this reality series and why should I allow them to use an educational game that interest them. If students become accustom to solving complex problems, it helps them to become critical thinkers.

http://www.ehow.com/list_6158842_benefits-games-education-learning-activities_.html#ixzz1r84jIV1t

http://www.theesa.com/games-improving-what-matters/education.asp