teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk

  Following on from my post about K12LTSP and saving old PCs from the skip, Edubuntu has just been launched. I have been using Ubuntu, the Linux operating system from which is it derived, on my home desktop and have been pleased with the results. Both are absolutely free-of-charge to download, install and share. I’m going to install Edubuntu on one of the PCs in my classroom as it supports K12LTSP so should ‘talk’ to the server just fine! :-D

  A ‘wiki’, according to Wikipedia (the wiki-based online encyclopedia) is:

a type of website that allows users to easily add and edit content and is especially suited for collaborative authoring

Going further…

In essence, a wiki is a simplification of the process of creating HTML pages combined with a system that records each individual change that occurs over time, so that at any time, a page can be reverted to any of its previous states. A wiki system may also provide various tools that allow the user community to easily monitor the constantly changing state of the wiki and discuss the issues that emerge in trying to achieve a consensus about the wiki content.

Rather amusingly, the word ‘wiki’ comes from Hawaiian, meaning "quick", "fast", or "to hasten". What has this got to do with education? Well, imagine the situation where you want pupils to demonstrate knowledge and work collaboratively, but both they and you are tired of traditional groupwork activities. Pupils could work individually or in pairs at the same time as working in a large group. Each individual/small group can edit everyone else’s work, encouraging responsibility (and self-restraint!) For students in post-compulsory education a wiki enables knowledge specifically related to a module or topic to be produced collaboratively, moderated by the teacher. I’ve created one at mrbelshaw.co.uk/wiki m going to try it out with my AS-level class! :-) As usual, opensourcecms.com is the place to go to tinker around and experiment… :-D

  I’m sure a lot of people will have heard of this, but del.icio.us is a wonderful social bookmarking phenomenon. "What does this mean?" I hear you cry! Well, it means that you store your bookmarks on the Internet rather than on your computer. So far, so 2001. But wait! Del.icio.us is different. Once you’ve tagged your bookmarks into categories you it not only makes them easily accessible, but means that you can view other users’ bookmarks with similar tags. Hence ’social bookmarking’. It really is the way forward. So once you’ve signed yourself up for an account, use this website to import your bookmarks from Firefox and get cracking! :P PS See what the world’s clicking on by going to del.icio.us/popular 8-)