Judging the Quality of Wikis and Non-vetted Sites

I am unfamiliar with Wikipedia and wikispaces. As an undergrad my professors never allowed us to use them, therefore I never became familiar with it. I don’t know how they work and have never used one as a reference. My professors said that they were unreliable and I took them at their word. I’m not really the one to judge if Wikipedia is or is not a reliable source.

According to an article by Daniel Terdiman (2005) journal Nature, Wikipedia is as accurate as Britannica. Although Britannica came out looking a bit better than Wikipedia, the leader of Wikipedia was pleased with the outcome.

 Early in the semester I remember something being said that we can read articles and they sound right, but they are not always correct. What that says to me is that one can’t depend on just one source for information. Careful consideration has to be given to each piece of information we relay to others.

I found School Tube and Teacher Tube very good websites as far as I could see. I signed up of Teacher Tube site just to play around with it. I would use  School Tube for my grand baby who is still a preschooler. He is just beginning to put sentences together. I would use it to teach simple things I think he should know. I like the way you can put different faces on to bodies that bounce around and pop-up.

I have not played around with Teacher Tube enough to go into any details, but there are a lot of subjects that a teacher can explore, which can make learning more interesting. As I reflect back on this course, let us not forget that with all these tools some students may still not be engaged in what is being taught.

There will still have to be some personal interaction with students in order to get to know them. We are living in a very different time than when I was going to school. Students today have a lot more to deal with on a daily basis. Women have advanced in education, there are more of them going to college than men. Yet, are women happier now than men in this new position?  Research says that they are not, according to Freakonomics Radio.

It is my understanding that most of the editing done on Wikipedia is done by men. It also seems that there is no clear reason why women are not engaging in it. I think I would be a little intimidated to put something there and then have someone delete it because they didn’t like it. I think women are more into having dialogue than just deleting and replacing with their own information. I may be wrong. What do think?     

Building and Refining my PLN #1

Evaluation is an essential part of any planning the deals with change. Instructional technology deals with a lot of assessing and evaluation. As I was looking to add to my PLN, I came across this evaluation tool for facilitating instructional technology form North Carolina. It is a self-assessment tool that could change for other assessments also

http://ncees.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/file/view/ITF%20Rubric%20for%20Self-Assessment%20Evaluation.pdf/452561620/ITF%20Rubric%20for%20Self-Assessment%20Evaluation.pdf

The ACT Policy Report was another good source that evaluates the effectiveness of technology in our school. It is a report in the other of the Horizon Report but it assesses the effectiveness of technology. It inform policy makers and the general public on the important issues of education by providing timely information that can directly enhance knowledge, dialogue, and decision making.

https://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/school_tech.pdf

This is web site is the government website for education. There is a lot of good information there for teachers and students. There evaluations, information about elementary and secondary education, and post-secondary education. You can also find career and technical education.

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/opepd/ppss/reports.html

 

I found a few more that I haven't put here but will add to my PLN.

I like the Scholastic website because I love books. Some may think that books are out of date, I don’t. I chose this website to pick my five top teacher. Each has their own special thing to offer to the classroom and will follow each of them on my twitter page and other that are considered experts in the field of teaching.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-ideas/rhonda-stewart

Rhonda teaches in New Jersey she comes from a long line of teachers. I chose to follow her because she is a young teacher and I want follow what she does her 6 graders.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-ideas/allie-magnuson

I liked the idea that this teacher wants to make learning exciting for all her students. She teaches kindergarten in North Las Vegas. I like many of her ideas

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/christy-crawford

Teaches k-5 she is considered one of the top teachers on the scholastic website. She is also resides in New York is always good to see what’s happening around the country.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-ideas/kriscia-cabralhttp://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-ideas/kriscia-cabral

Kriscia teaches in California I like that she looks for brilliance in all her students. She is another top teacher on the scholastic website

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-ideas/john-depasquale

John teaches writing for grade 5-8. One of his blogs is on 5 fast formative assessments.

I have not used many of the Web 2.0 tools as of yet but think that they can be very useful in the classroom and in other learning  environments. I 'm the kind of person that has to play around with different things in them. With such a great array of tools to work with teachers using their creativity and imagination should make these tools valuable.