I have had fun exploring some new web 2.0 tools this week. One of my favorite finds was twiducate, an online social networking site geared towards schools. It allows teachers to create a social networking site that is private to just his/her students. I like the idea of using Facebook to communicate with students and parents, but don't feel that it is secure enough to use for school purposes. Not all of the students have Facebook accounts and I think I would have a hard time convincing parents to allow their students Facebook accounts with all of the negative attention it gets. Also, Facebook users are supposed to be 13 and older which my students don't meet that qualification. I think twiducate would be a great alternative. Students could still connect with each other and if the teacher wanted to they could connect with other classrooms around the world. Definitely a tool I will be taking a closer look at.
As far as the other work for this week.... my wiki has taken up a lot of my time. I decided to create a wiki instead of using the current Google Site I created for another class for a few reasons. One, I have never created a wiki before and I thought it would be a good experience. Two, my district blocks all Google Applications including Google sites so if I created one for school I would never be able to use it at school. (very frustrating, but that is another blog post!) So far I have a few things on my Wiki and am excited about some of the other things I want to add, but I feel like I am moving at a snails pace getting it completed. It isn't as easy as I thought it would be. On a positive note, I definitely see how useful it will be when finished and I am excited to share it with my coworkers. I just wish I had more time to put more into it which seems to be the theme of my blogs... if only I had more time!!!
I hope you post again about how twiducate is going- I'd be interested to hear. I always have a tough time getting kids invested in an alternate social media. It's like trying to get one of my friends to have a drink somewhere other than their favorite bar. I can list the positives of my choice all I want, but the students/friends will want to stay where they're comfortable. I wish you luck, and if you can get kids comfortable and interacting on a new site, I'm straight up stealing whatever you did.
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