Free Wikis For Higher Education
Fantastic news - Wikispaces are now providing free spaces for Higher Education without all the advertising.
http://www.wikispaces.com/content/for/highered
I have used wikispaces for rather a long time in education and the value of this tool to provide a window to the world for communication, collaboration and creativity is huge. You don't get many things in life for free but this is one of those gems that should be treasured and appreciated otherwise it will come lost in the mine.
Posts
3 comments:
Hi,
I just read Prensky's "Don't bother me mom - I'm learning" (the chapter Sharon gave us to read)and find what Prensky says about immigrants and natives disturbingly accurate in terms of attitudes towards using technology differing markedly between generations. I don't know if I agree about what he says about porn becoming a backgound noise where children will be less intrigued, though. I think that may be wishful thinking. This is my first attempt at posting a comment. Hope I got it right! PGDE(P) student 2011-12.
I thought this was a very interesting chapter and I would agree with many of Prensky’s ideas such as:
- Natives can keep in contact with friends via IM for free, whereas Immigrants would have to pay money to stay in contact with friends and family back in the day!
- The use of short abbreviations is very popular for natives, such as POS (Parent Over Shoulder), Most immigrants wouldn’t understand what this means. I have never heard of h4t5tnt, I think that this is a very unusual abbreviation!!
- Online dating, advertising, finding a job, buying and selling products, just some of the things Prensky mentions that are becoming very popular.
- My favourite quote of the chapter is, “No more ‘blind’ meetings – or dates! – for this generation.” With the use of Facebook, Webcams, Skype etc, people can meet online before they actually meet in person and can get to know each other before they meet. You may be meeting someone you do not know and most people will probably ‘Facebook-Creep’ this person before they meet them, therefore I completely agree with Prensky’s view here.
However I did disagree with some of Prensky’s points:
- Prensky states that natives with dyslexia enjoy using IM as the only rule is to make yourself understood. I was confused by this view as I thought children with dyslexia would like to improve things such as spelling and grammar. Surely using IM would only make their condition worse?
- Prensky states that physical photo albums are a thing of the past, but I think people still like to have photo albums for holidays, weddings etc and I don’t think this will ever change. Whilst many people share photos online and keep photo albums on websites such as shutterfly, I still believe that many people still like to print-out photos.
- Prensky also states that most immigrants use webcams for security purposes, such as keeping an eye on their babysitter. I know lots of immigrants who use skype to keep in contact with their family, and I would think that this is more popular than ‘spying on your babysitter!’
The conclusion I came to from reading this chapter is that children are growing up much faster than adults would have, simply because of the internet and the vast majority of information that is available to them online. Once a child learns how to use the internet and a laptop/PC, they will be exposed to so much information and from this they will learn and learn and learn.
HI,
I finally got my hands on Marc Prensky's "Don't bother me mum...". Thanks Sharon, this was a very enlightening book, encouraging me to use technology more and more in everyday life and teaching. It was great to have Prensky focus on all the benefits of being a Digital Native ( I am jealous). This also helps me understand my teenagers... I need to get my husband to read it. That's once I get it back from my 9 year old.... This is my first attempt at posting a comment(between reading about the new iPhone 4S) PGDE(P) student 2011-12
Post a Comment