Steph's Physics Wiki Blog (IN PROGRESS)

Wiki Website: Steph's Physicsmania Wiki


Do you plan on using your classroom blog/wiki in your future classroom? If so, what types of modifications do you envision? Please explain.

I definitely think that a wiki page is a great tool to use in the classroom and I do plan to use it in the future. I like how wikis can be used as a platform for students display work that they are proud of to their peers, teachers, parents and other family members, get feedback from their peers, collaborate with other students, and share useful resources. An additional perk to wikis is that the classroom is not just restricted to a class period; students can participate and enrich the classroom outside of their school from their own homes, on their own time.

I plan to use the wiki I made and modify it to add pages for students to post their lab reports, projects, and demonstrations to. I'd also like to tape student's presentation that they do in class so that other students and parents can see what their child is working on. The web has so many new pages being added each day, so I htink that if everyone in class posts a resource from the web that they find useful, it will narrow down resources pages for students and future classes, and will make web navigation on physics topics more manageable. With that said, I will also add more useful resource pages for each unit that we cover in our physics class. I will also use the site to upload class resources such as powerpoint presentation that I show in class. I'd also like to use SMARTboard in the class as well to do sample problems in detail together with the class, and then upload the work we did on the SMARTboard at the end of the day to the wiki page.



Do you plan on having your students create their own blogs/wikis in your future classroom? If so, please explain.

I think that I'll have students either produce their own blog, or their own wikis. I think it's a great way for students to display their own portfolio of the work that they've done in physics that everyone can access, comment on and give feedback to students on. Most importantly, it is somehting that students can access for years to come. Students can look back, reflect on work they've done, and use it as resources for their future work. I would also encourage students to use their blog/wiki for other classes if possible to build an even bigger portfolio for themselves.


Discussion of how your view of instructional technology has or has not changed over the semester

Initially, I thought that blogs and wikis for use in school was not the best idea. Being unfamiliar with blogs and aware of the prevalence of cyberbullying, I didn't think that students could use a blog/wiki responsibly and respectfully. I will definitely be using Richardson's (2008) guideline sheet that he provided in his book to give to students and their parents to have them sign so that they are aware of the rulesin the classroom on blogging and wikis, and of the penalties. But I now think that the advantages of using blogs and wikis are clearly superior to the possible risks.

I also htink that powerpoints, jing, podcasts, and IMovie are all great tools to use in the classroom, because they can produce files that can be uploaded to the web for others to access, and can be the teacher for years to come!


Discuss the quality and appropriateness of what you have learned and created this semester.

I will definitely utilize the tools and knowledge of technology that I learned this semester. I think most of the technologies such as blogging, wikis, and webpages are appropriate and quality tools to use. I'm not sure how I would do it, but I would like to incorporate podcasts and create movies to include into my classroom, mainly because they can be uploaded to the web for other students to access and use, and because they can be used for years to come.


Evaluation of your comfort moving forward with technology.

I am comfortable with moving forward with technology to an extent, but I do feel that it is always evolving so we always need to keep ourselves current and educate ourselves on new technological advances and their advantages/risks of use in the classroom. I will definitley start to be a part of ed tech forums to keep abreast of the new features and advances of technology.