The Pro and Con of Wikipedias

Read the following statement of a professor who publishes about herpetology, and comment by offering your own thoughts about wikipedias in general. How can class wikipedias still be beneficial? What do you need to do as a teacher?

I have had several questions of late regarding pigmentation and chromatophores. There is a lot of information out on the misinformation super highway about chromatophores, but it is highly confusing. (...) The point is that the misinformation super highway (MiSH - not to confuse with MSH which is melanophore (melanocyte) stimulating hormone) is full of people that do not do the proper research and do not fully understand the subject they are writing about. Some in the misinformation super highway's drunk lane (abbreviated 'wikipedia') do much more than confuse the issues, they actually write things that are incorrect and when it is corrected, change it back to the incorrect information (see the wikipedia article on leucism that a colleague of mine at another college tried to correct and wound up getting his stuff changed back to the incorrect information and told that he did not offer credible citations when he used research papers, peer reviewed literature and expert's text books as references).

http://vetherppath.hubpages.com/hub/Understanding-Reptile-Color-and-Correct-Color-Terminology

Blogging as an Educational Tool

In his article, “Blogging as Pedagogic Practice: Artefact and Ecology,” Marcus O’Donnell from the University of Wollongong, Australia cites the experience of a teacher who "fell out of love with blogging" as follows:

I have discovered that my honeymoon with blogs is over, mostly because there really is no room for spirited interaction between my students and myself in the blogs. Yes, I can require that they respond to another person’s blog, but one student said that, compared to a discussion forum, leaving responses to blogs felt more like leaving a note for someone who is out. The discussion forum, she said, felt more like an ongoing conversation which was more fun. (Remmell 2004)

Please post a short comment (100-200 words) of what you think about this argument, and whether you think this can/will keep you as a teacher from using blogs in your classes. Are blogs interactive enough? Do they foster communication between students, and/or students and teacher? What dangers would you see with blogging? Would you consider a class blog a valuable teaching tool, or an unnecessary technological burden?

Attention: put your NAME in your post when you post as "anonymous," because otherwise, I won't know who you are and can't give you points!!! ;-) If you can post under your name, you won't need to type in your name anymore, of course.

Homework for Day 2, Sept. 1, 2011: 5-Paragraph Essay

On Day 1, you have heard the summaries of several research articles about the good, bad, and ugly about the five-paragraph essay.

For Day 2, Sept. 1, 2011, please post in the comment section what you personally think about it, and whether or not you will use it when you go out into the field to teach. Also, if you have previous experience with it, you can add it here; were you taught to write in the form of the five-paragraph essay? Was it helpful? Did it stunt your growth as a creative writer? Have you observed it being taught? Etc.

Welcome & Intro

Hi future English teachers,

Welcome to your methods class, "Teaching Writing to High School Students"!!!
At first, we are going to introduce ourselves. Please post a paragraph about yourself, e.g., your personality, your hobbies, your teaching experiences/anticipations, your goals, etc.

We might share our intros with a local high school teacher, who regularly supplies us with authentic student essays to practice grading, so please write appropriately ;-)