{"id":43,"date":"2010-01-27T12:35:37","date_gmt":"2010-01-27T20:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/?p=43"},"modified":"2010-01-27T12:44:13","modified_gmt":"2010-01-27T20:44:13","slug":"pro-d-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/2010\/01\/27\/pro-d-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-D case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional Development or PD as\u00a0 Ontario teachers call it.<\/p>\n

The elements that seem important in this case is that a place to upload information and discussion is required.\u00a0 The teacher has minimal resources and not much training in web design.\u00a0 Connectivity is also an issue.\u00a0 Dial up is slow.<\/p>\n

This brings to mind my daughter’s problems with uploading information and photos to the internet while she was in Nicaragua.\u00a0 The connection was way too slow to upload more than text.\u00a0 Images, slide shows and videos were just not possible.\u00a0 The one thing she could do was update her blog regularly and respond to comments.\u00a0 She could also use MSN.<\/p>\n

So here we enter the realm of social networking.\u00a0 Discussions are important in advancing ideas.\u00a0 They get the creative juices flowing.\u00a0 So Lenora would like to not only share her ideas with colleagues near and far, but also gather new information from an exchange of ideas.\u00a0 Buffy Ste Marie, author of the Cradleboard Project, seems to expose the problem of distribution of resources:<\/p>\n

“Even with regard to local tribal curriculum, teachers in a faraway state can’t find the best of the best in a concise and usable form.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The nature of the information is an important aspect here.\u00a0 Lenora can share many ideas without having to use multimedia such as slide shows or videos.\u00a0 I see her site as mostly text driven.\u00a0 But of course, she most likely wants to make it more visual than that, recognizing that visual literacy is now included in the definition of literacy (Biebrich, p. 27).<\/p>\n

She can certainly address all these needs with a wiki.\u00a0 Creating a wiki is a small matter.\u00a0 It costs nothing, it can be created in a short amount of time, especially with good instructions (available online as part of the help function) and it addresses all her needs, including the need for a collaborative space.\u00a0 She can also set permissions to allow only certain people to collaborate (through a membership she approves).<\/p>\n

Not only are the pages collaborative, she can also make use of the discussion function that is integrated in each page.<\/p>\n

If she is concerned about commercials on the site, she can ask for a site that is used for education and have no ads show up at all.\u00a0 Wiki sites can be shared with the world or kept private for members only if she is concerned about confidentiality.<\/p>\n

As for formatting pages, this is very similar to a simple wordprocessor.\u00a0 She can use templates to choose the look and feel of the wiki.<\/p>\n

I have used wikis in my classes for over a year now and highly recommend them for their simplicity and ease of use.\u00a0 You can view one of my class sites at bmi3c.wikispaces.com<\/a>.\u00a0 It took very little time to create the wiki, maybe 2-3 hours to start the initial pages (1 or 2 pages) and make design choices.\u00a0 I used a model from another course I saw when I attended a workshop.\u00a0 The workshop was definitely useful for advanced functions such as inserting a video file.\u00a0 If Lenora can access a workshop on wikis through her school system or her professional organization, she might find it helps her get a head start.\u00a0 If that is not possible, she can easily find a tutorial on the web or even go to the help function on the wiki site.\u00a0 She can justify the cost of training to her administrators as a way to integrate further technology into her classroom.\u00a0 For example, a wiki would be a wonderful way to preserve cultural information by creating a class project where her students are invited to interview their parents and grand-parents and then post the results (it could be something like the adult’s favourite anecdote from their childhood or bedtime story or family recipe).\u00a0 The Cradleboard project has ideas that could certainly be adapted to a wiki space.<\/p>\n

Once the wiki is up, she will be able to add content as easily as saving a file into this new space (uploading).\u00a0 With text based files, she should not be impeded by the slow connection.\u00a0 Adding slideshows or videos will also be quick as she can simply post a link on the wiki page.\u00a0 There are more sophisticated ways to show multimedia, like embedding the files, but she can do quite well without those functions for now.\u00a0 From then on, it’s a question of maintaining, adding to and administering the wiki (memberships and permissions).\u00a0 She can spend as little as 2 hours a week on these tasks or more depending on the membership demands and how much discussion happens in the discussion area.<\/p>\n

And of great importance, she must make people aware of her wiki.\u00a0 She can simply announce its purpose and provide a link within her teaching circle or other social network areas she participates in.\u00a0 Word of mouth is accomplished in many forms.<\/p>\n

Lenora is best advised not to use a website at this time unless her school provides a place to host the site.\u00a0 For example, my board has created a license to use google sites for all its teachers.\u00a0 Google sites is very easy to use and I would certainly recommend it for its ease of use.\u00a0 Google docs is another application that might suit Lenora.\u00a0 The major reason I would recommend a wiki over a website is that she will not be required to learn html.\u00a0 Having to learn a programming language would substantially add to her time investment in this project, keeping her from her true purpose.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

Beibrich, J. L. (2006). Comics & graphic novels: seeing the meeting<\/em> (Master’s thesis). Retrieved November 11, 2009, from http:\/\/www.informationgoddess.ca\/MEdCappingPaper\/LiteracyComics&GNJLBiebrich.pdf<\/p>\n

Capriccioso, R. (n.d.). Cradleboard Curricula | Connect for Kids \/ Child Advocacy 360 \/ Youth Policy Action Center. Welcome to Connect for Kids<\/em>. Retrieved January 26, 2010, from http:\/\/www.connectforkids.org\/node\/501<\/p>\n

Marie, B. S. (n.d.). Cradleboard Project. AIPC Homepage<\/em>. Retrieved January 27, 2010, from http:\/\/www.aipc.osmre.gov\/Notes%20from%20Native%20America\/99note7.htm<\/p>\n

One America – Cradleboard Teaching Project. (n.d.). Welcome To The White House<\/em>. Retrieved January 26, 2010, from http:\/\/clinton3.nara.gov\/Initiatives\/OneAmerica\/Practices\/pp_19980729.6548.html#operations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professional Development or PD as\u00a0 Ontario teachers call it. The elements that seem important in this case is that a place to upload information and discussion is required.\u00a0 The teacher has minimal resources and not much training in web design.\u00a0 Connectivity is also an issue.\u00a0 Dial up is slow. This brings to mind my daughter’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":896,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[60,7198,7200,7193,7195,7194,3860,7199,1311,495,7196,97,7197],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-collaborative","tag-confidentiality","tag-connetivity","tag-google-docs","tag-google-sites","tag-html","tag-membership","tag-social-networking","tag-time","tag-uploading","tag-wikis","tag-wikispaces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cteachr565b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}