Learning more and more

As I have been researching and building this information wiki for a couple of presentations that are coming up, I have been learning more and more about the amazing things that are available to educators in the web. In the past couple of days a couple of blogs have really helped my project. One is from CoolCatTeacher, Vicki Davis who recently blogged about the Web 2.o applications that she loves. What is even better the comments that have resulted from her post have added even more to the idea of thinking about what you find essential in the world of the Web2.0.
Chris Betcher also blogged about this in this post a few days ago where he describes the online tools that he couldn't live without. I don't think I can add to either of these lists and I guess in a way that makes me feel good because it means that I'm probably on the right track in my learning journey of web2.0 and its application in education. But what makes me even more excited is that the kids that I teach also seem to be getting excited about the possibilities. For example the Year 8's have to create a Service announcement about the environmental issue that they have been studying. And today two of the girls who have been working really well and who are great thinkers and enthusiasts asked whether there was something they could use to get some video from the web for their project. 15 minutes later they had learnt about KeepVid and VideoPiggy and were well on their way to finding something on TeacherTube to enhance their project.

Creating a Learning Wiki

I love wikis. Mainly because they provide an opportunity for anyone or everyone to create an online presence to share, to provoke, to describe, to collaborate. Wikis as we know simply enable anyone and everyone to create content online using easily understandable tools. Many of our P-12 schools are taking advantage of the opportunities for "collaborative construction" that wikis provide. But I love the fact that we can also use them for whatever we need to create online. At the moment I am working on my presentation wiki , Teaching-with-Technology, in preparation for a couple of conferences I am presenting at over the next couple of weeks. My aim is to have all the information that I need and much more on the wiki so that people who attend my workshop will have a type of one stop shop where they can get all of the information that they need. It will contain links for both teachers and students to sites that help them to be organised, collaborate with each other, learn from others, see examples of Web 2.0 being used in the classroom and much more.
Over the next couple of weeks I will continue to build on it and I would love some feedback or suggestions.