Blogs and Wikis at IACON 2008

IACON 2008 is where it IS HAPPENING in Iowa this week.

I will be presenting a Web 2.0 Tools workshop with Will Coghill-Behrends and Rebecca Anthony from University of Iowa. They will be discussing ePortfolios and Social Networks. They will cover Classroom 2.0 (even talk with Steve Hargadon over Skype) and then introduce the group to Ning - Your Customizable Social Network.

Classroom Blogs

• Selection and Integration: Readings/Listenings/Watchings/Doings - Use a blog for listing assignments for class.
• Blog-bib - An annotated bibliography on blogging.
• Weekly Teacher Blog - 3rd grade teacher's blog. This is the electronic version of the Friday newsletter for parents. Notice that there is no commenting capacity.
  
• Mrs. Sempek's Wonderful 4th Grade Class - A look at the classroom from the students' eyes. Recent posts show sign language. Look at the Sept and Oct posts to see their writings.
• Keying In - Mrs. Olson reflects on "Practicing Keyboarding While Communicating with the World." This is for the students and their parents and the rest of the world.
  
• A Trip to Burritt on the Mountain - Takes the 4th grade students on a virtual visual and textual tour of a museum before they visit so that they will get more from the experience.
  
• BG Blogging - Creative Writing blogging from Middlebury University

Overall Blogging Examples

• Keyboarding Research and Resources - Used a blog to create a database of research that is searchable by tags/labels.
• Dr. Z Reflects - Dr. Z's humble attempt at blogging.
• Edu.blogs.com - Evan McIntosh. Comments/reflects on using tech in ed.
• Captain's Blog - Journal of Captain Mark Bromwich in Afghanistan.

Blogging Utilities

• Google Reader - Google's great aggregator for blogs. You must have a Google account for this to work.
  
• Bloglines Reader - On-line RSS Feed Reader. Get an account.
• Technorati - This is the Google for Blogs.
• Google Blog Search - This is the Blog search for Google.
  

Create Your Own Blog

• Blogger - Quick and easy blogging spot.
• WordPress - Takes a little longer, but includes tagging and couple of other treats. It's worth the extra time.

Wikis

• Wikipedia - The encyclopedia created and edited by "the masses".

Wikimapia - The People's Mapping Utility

Wikimapia combines Google Maps (including satellite imaging) with a wiki system. This was created in 2006 to allow users to "Describe the whole planet Earth." This is your opportunity to identify your favorite place and then add descriptive information. It will allow you to embed the image like the one I have here on this posting or you can just have a link to it like this one.

Above, you can see an aerial view of the local Kwik Star here in Cedar Falls. For those of you who don't live in the midwest, Kwik Star is a convenience where you can purchase everything from gas (petro) to coffee to pizza to soda. It is a popular haunt of students and local residents alike.

You can add your own comments to the description of this Kwik Star (or anything else in WikiMapia) by just clicking on the box and then adding your comment. You can also add a vote as to whether or not it is an accurate description of the area.

WikiMapia is a Wonderful way for bring geography alive for students and teachers. It allows us to be part of the mapping process. You can mashup blog postings with mapping with audio commentary with ????

Give it a try.