Twitter in the Classroom

I am a little iffy on how this whole Twitter thing will pan out.  Right now I see it as something celebrities and narcissistic people do.  But I could be entirely wrong about that.  The textbook for the class was helpful in showing me the possibilities for Twitter in the classroom.  But other than that, I am not so sure about this thing yet.  But as I work with it, I hope to understand it a little better and maybe I will be tweeting to parents some day.  You just never know.

googledocs

Googledocs are handy in the classrooms with group collaboration.  Which, for me right now, is all of them.  I think it is a nice space for collaboration, however it lacks the personal interaction and give and take that comes from group projects.  For students trying to coordinate busy schedules, it's great.  But I have found that it leads to disjointed, ill-put together projects.  This is my personal opinion, and of course, I haven't had that much experience with Googledocs.  This is because not one of my teachers had told me about it until this semester, when I have been overloaded with Googledoc coordinations.  I'm glad we were told how to use it in my C&I 306 class, because my other teachers magically assume that I know what it is and how to do it as of this sememseter, the first time I have ever even heard of it.  And some of these teachers have had me before.  As far as my experience with the actual program- I like it, but not as a substitute for actually meeting with people to collaborate.  It is an excellent alternative to e-mailing documents, and the form format is great for future teacher in me. 

Wiki Experiences

Wikis are really interesting.  I have to admit that I continue to be a little confused- how do you put what where?  But I'm hoping that after I go home and watch the wiki How-To videos, I will be more confident in my wiki skills.  Wikis potentially have a lot more to offer to a classroom situation than a blog.  Blogs are a lot less interactive and, I feel, more limited in scope.  When a student hears the term "Wiki"-anything, they automatically perk up and connect it with the idea of an encyclopedic page, full of information in an open format.  They may or may not know that it is something to be edited, however they do know, as conscientious kids, that wikis can't always be relied on for complete accuracy.  This is something kids NEED to know, and giving them their own license to edit and change a class wiki will really send the point home.  All of that being said, blogs are still my favorite, and they are useful for a teacher in guaging student participation.  Whether the children are creating their own blogs, which can be monitored and checked frequently by their instructor, or if they are simply responding to a teacher's blog, it seems like it would be much easier to keep track of who is getting their homework done and by when.  The time stamps and speed of blogging is unbeatable.  However, students might not take them to be as factual and truthful than a wiki, as wikis relate more to scholastic entries about a subject and blogs are opinion based.  So there are ups and downs to each method, and I am happy to know how to do each, but blogs continue to hold top honors as far as I'm concerned.