Virtual Communities for Educators

TWITTER

Twitter has bee used by various school districts, administrators, educators, and students. Twitter is a form of social media used to broadcast or tweet daily events by the minute. Educators who use Twitter are opening a diverse educational environment. They are choosing to not simply rely on their communication with their students to take place in the classroom but also through the internet. Educators can use Twitter as an open forum for activities, assignments, or just to understand the thoughts of their students. Twitter allows students who are registered to follow their teacher and make comments to their posts. Students can learn of new events taking place and upcoming dates. Twitter is a new generation chat room. I like the idea of teachers using Twitter to post important articles, facts, or quotes from important people that students may not have read otherwise.

GOOGLE GROUPS

Google Groups can be used by teachers to set up and assign study group forums that their students can join and participate in open discussion. Students can also browse similar or interested topics and see what others have to say about a specific topic or subject

Wikis and Blogs...What's the Difference??

                                                                      DIFFERENCES   

BLOG	WIKI
An online journal/diary that is updated daily or weekly by the author	A platform that can be updated at any time by anyone
Created by an individual	Created by many members who add to the platform
Made up of the authors individual opinion and allows others to comment with photos links and videos	Represents consensus but can have an associated discussion page

                                                                     SIMILARITIES

BLOG	WIKI
Available through free software	Available through free software
Accessible to public	Accessible to public
Informative and free to opinions	Informative and free to opinions

Blogs are not only used to post notices, announcements, and important events but also used  to encourage active engagement. Creating or participating in a blog or wiki page gives students the opportunity to discuss assignments or issues relating to class outside of the classroom. Students who do not regularly participate in classroom discussions are able to share their thoughts in confidence. Active engagement is important in class and this is a great way to enforce participation without singling out students. Blogs not only encourage discussion on class assignments but can also serve as a thing students can look back at when having difficulty comprehending or remembering information imperative to testing. Wiki pages allows for students to continue to add information to topics the more they learn about it and students who may know more than the next can help by correcting inaccurate information. Wiki pages can be great to use because it does not limit information input to your classroom. Information on subjects can be added from students all over the world.

Rubio, R. r., Martín, S., & Morán, S. (2010). Collaborative web learning tools: Wikis and blogs. Computer Applications In Engineering Education, 18(3), 502-511.