Wikis

I chose to write about an article entitled “Wikis” Offer Knowledge-Sharing Online Wikipedia’s one million entries larger than Encyclopedia Britannica by anick Jesdanum.
The articles starts with a story about a man who used wikipedia to look up his hometown, when he did not find an entry he chose to write one of his own. This is due to new wave of online communities called wikis that let people add delete and edit entries.
There are some wikis dedicated solely to things such as cookbooks, guitar players, manuals, and more. Downfalls to wikis include spammers and other sorts of mischief. The word wiki comes from a Hawaiian word “wiki wiki” which means quick. The first wiki was created in 1995 and wikipedia followed in 2001.
The article then goes into detail about Wikipedia and its many forms. Stockepedia, and Wikitravel are two other types of wikis that have information about investments and travel.
Some of the downfalls to wikis are the fact that anyone can post and edit on them. One security company refuses to work with these sites because the workers did not have enough time to go through all the entries everyday. The other downfall to wikis is that the information on them might not always be the most up to date or the most accurate. The entries do not have to be approved in order to be posted so they might not be correct. On the other hand the array of information these websites can provide is much more vast than any regular encyclopedia or book can give you.
This is a great tool for students and teachers. Wikis cans provide a “one stop shop” idea for information. Wikipedia is great for finding credible information about things you would otherwise be unable to find information about. For example, the boy above that input an article about his hometown. The downfalls are as mentioned above, the availability of the site and editing to anyone makes some sources less credible. But as long as students are careful and make sure the article comes from a credible source they should have no problem.
I personally think Wikipedia is great. I use it for everything and recommend it to everyone. I think that the most well known wiki, Wikipedia, is making great strides in making everything on their site a credible source. Other smaller sites should try and advance their sites by doing the same.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6112915/

Blogging

In the article titled Fred Thompson Posts Ideas Online for Potential White House Bid by the Associated Press, blogging in campaigns is the focus. Fred Thompson, an actor turned politician, resorts to blogging after seeing fellow candidate Barack Obama’s success with campaigning over Myspace.
Thompson is well known for playing Arthur Branch on Law and Order. The internet is becoming a great way for presidential candidates to campaign. In 2004 Howard Dean predominantly used the internet to campaign, and has grown with candidates since. Many are using Myspace and other social networking sites to appeal to a younger crowd.
Thompson has been blogging on such sites as, Redstate.com, the Pajamas Media blog, the National Review Online, and The Fred Thompson Report. This extra work on his part has shown to help him. As of May 2007 he was running closely to Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich but has since dropped out of the 2008 race.
Most of the younger generation is geared towards the internet and spend large amounts of time using computers. Blogging is a great way for the younger generations to learn about presidential campaigns. Blogging in general is a great way for kids to learn either by having one of their own or reading other’s. By having their own they learn how to be creative, to write better, and to use the internet for informational purposes. By reading other’s blogs they can learn about other people insights and views on issues which can help them develop their own opinions. It can also help their reading skills, communication, and tact.
I think this is a great way for students to learn. It makes things more interesting and fun. For the future, I think that websites should be designed only for students to blog. Translations would be available for them to see insight from their peers in different countries.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270067,00.html

Get Outta Class With Virtual Field Trips

I am writing about an article entitled Get Outta Class with Virtual Field Trips, by Sherril Steele-Carlin.

The article talks about a new technology that enables children to go on field trips without having to leave their classrooms. This enables teachers to make learning fun without the hassle of going on a true field trip. This technology also enables you to go places you would not normally be able to go. The article gives examples of Antarctica and the solar system. These places would be extremely expensive and dangerous of not impossible for a real field trip, but because of our technology students can expirience these places and in turn learn about them.

Teachers also can enjoy making these virtual field trips for their own students. In some cases teachers can go out to these places and take pictures to create their own virtual trips. This makes their job more interesting and fun.

I personally think this is a great idea. Although in some cases it could encourage laziness and dependence on technology. Our world has already become somewhat dependent on technology and to me this seems to provoke it. Students will think that they can sit at home and see these places online so why would they go to them in real life? On the other hand, they can go to places that would otherwise be impossible to go to without the internet and this opens up many more learning possiblities for them. Hopefully these children will see these places online and it will encourage them to see it in real life.

I think a great way they could expand on this idea would be to create a virtual reality simulation where the students would actually be able to “walk” through a museum or “swim” with the dolphins or “fly” through space. This to me would encourage some sort of physical activity and make it seem like a video game which would make it even more appealing to the child.

http://elearning.fgcu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=1E56A9EEBA3D4F6E8B6C5609B562E3E2

I

100 dollar laptops

A foundation run by Nicholas Negroponte is creating laptops for only one hundred dollars to give to poor children and families of third-world countries. These laptops are internet and multimedia capable. They will be sold in mass units of 1 million per order to the governments of these countries who will then distribute them. The laptops will have a slower processor than most laptops it will also have a small storage capacity and will only have nessecary programs installed. The battery will be able to be charged by a hand crank. The only downfall to this is that fact that the internet and even electricity in some places is scarce.
This is a great idea and would be very helpful to these children in terms of learning. They will have all the access that our children have and may in time help bring their country out of third- world status. This program in my opinion should also be used within the United States. There are many children within our own country that cannot afford computers and are at an extreme disadvantage when it comes to learning. Yes, libraries and some cafes have computers and internet for free but the issue of transportation comes into play and if all our underpriveledged kids could have their own computer their learning experience will be much easier.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7380192/

Introduction

Hello my name is Gabrielle Derrington or Gabby for short. I started this blog for at class I am taking called Introduction to computers in Education.