Today I finished the screen cast for my wiki. It only took a few takes, and, like before, Jing is very easy to use. However the wiki was giving me a lot of trouble a few weeks ago. Finding the sources was not a problem, although finding examples of elementary teachers was more difficult that the abundant information on middle and high school teachers with interactive whiteboards. The real problem was adding the information to my wiki. I used Google Sites and sometime my computer wouldn't "connect" so it was unable to save the information. Sometimes the information would be completely deleted when I pressed save. After trying multiple computers I visited Professor Boyer and got the situation straightened out, and got most of my information back. However, despite this bad experience I still see the value in using wikis. In my future classroom I will use a wiki through a different website, but I still like the ease of adding information, unlike using computer programs (like Dreamweaver) to update websites. I know that I will definitely have a classroom site online to share agendas, news, homework assignments, pictures, etc with students, parents, and community members. Keeping an "open" classroom can have a number of benefits, the biggest one I see being parent support and communication.
Also, I see how students can use this technology to compile research, as I did for this project. Having them publish it online will make them more accountable to work hard and produce great work. They can show parents and long-distance relatives the work they've done, and even view, learn from, and comment on each other's research. Despite my set-backs in this assignment, I definitely see a lot of potential for wikis in my classroom.
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