Chapter 6

Knowledge Building with Knowledge Forum
When I first started reading this section I realized I knew what the author was talking about. The words, “Knowledge Forum” threw me off a little, but as I read through it I realized exactly what this was. A Knowledge Forum is a place where students can comment, ask questions, and gain knowledge from a particular subject or topic. The one thing that I like about this form of technology is that it required students to be actively engaged in learning. I will definitely use this in my future classroom. I think that students will benefit from other students’ thoughts as well as contributing their own thoughts. A discussion board can be used as knowledge forum. The teacher can start off the discussion with a topic or question and students can contribute on their own to the teacher’s question or other students’ questions. I know from my own experience I have used a discussion board and have benefited from using it. As a teacher I will post questions to help students with projects, review, questions to help study for a test, or just general discussion question to see where students are in terms of what they have learned.

Co-constructing Knowledge with Wikis
Wikis are very similar to the knowledge forum. In my opinion wikis seem to be more intense and more involved. I have always wondered what “wiki” meant and now I know…”quickly”. I find this interesting because wikis are quick and usually are the place to find information the quickest. Over the year I have become familiar with Wikipedia. The only downfall with this website and others that contain wikis are that they can be changed by other people, so the information cannot be taken to be true all of the time. I don’t think that me as a teacher will encourage students to use only wikis to find and gain information. I do think that it is an excellent starting point for students to use in order to find which direction to go in order to find the information that are looking for. I also feel like wikis are mainly for older students to use in and out of the classroom. I don’t think I will be using this form of technology very often in my classroom.

Finding Colleagues with Interactive Blogs
This section was very familiar to me. Blogs are an excellent resource to use in the classroom. I have always thought that blogs are personal diaries and thoughts of people. But after reading this section I realized that blogs can be used by the teacher, an expert, and by the student. In the future I will definitely use all of these different ways in the classroom. National Geographic is an excellent source to use for students to participate in expert blogs that are already laid out for them. This is a good place for students to think on their own and still learn in an interactive way. I also will use a class blog for students and their parents to use. I can use this to help challenge students with new thought and also inform parents on things happening in the classroom. If I was to teach older students I would use personal blogs for students to share and read others. Blogs are an excellent ways of communication as well as sharing information with others. A good blog website is blogspot.com, which I have learned to use in this class and have enjoyed using it. Another blogging website is livejournal.com.
What are some ways that teachers can incorporate personal blogs with elementary aged students?

Building International Communities
Learning circle can be an excellent tool for students to use to understand different values and goals. This is nice to use because students can see that others have the same values and goals. They can also see the way they are striving towards those goals or practicing the values. I might use this in my future classroom. I could assign students projects or an online activity along with students somewhere else. As for global schoolhouse, I would agree that students learn best when students have to measure, collect, evaluate, write, read, publish, simulate, hypothesize, compare, debate, examine, investigate, organize, share and report. I enjoyed reading this section because I was able to read about good examples of projects that students can complete and learn from. International communities are similar to community circles but students can see a worldwide view of students working on collaborative projects. After reading this section, I will probably not use this type of technology as much in the classroom.

Building Professional Teacher Communities
It is very important as teachers to learn from one another. As a teacher I plan on participating in a teacher community, so that I can learn and get ideas from other educators. I think that I will definitely be using TeacherTalk. I think that I will be able to get lesson plan ideas, teaching styles, and most importantly support from other educators doing the same thing as me.

Usernet and NetNews Groups
This section was new to me. NetNews and Usernets are two central locations for people to find messages that have been sent to a mass of people. These two things can most often not be appropriate for students and teachers need to be aware of what they would be using. I am really confused to how this is used in the classroom or how it relates to students. I don’t see this form of technology to be as useful as the other mentioned in this chapter.
How can this be used in the classroom?

Overall this chapter was interesting to read. I will take most of the information presented and use it in my future classroom. I think students will gain knowledge by using these forms of technology and will also enjoy using them