1. Wikis, Blogs And Web
Publishing
MCIU – Summer 2014
By Steve Finegan

2. Which tool have you found most useful?
• It will be much easier to answer this question once the first few months of school
are completed. I envision using my wiki page as a tool for students to have
interactive blog discussions. It will also be a support system for all students to
find assignments, due dates, links to social studies content and more. I think this
has the most potential to be a powerful way to engage students and improve
student learning.

3. What were some successes and challenges?
Successes
• Love RSS and will use it every day
since current events are part of the
curriculum. Also a great way to stay
professionally informed.
• I enjoyed writing my blog and will
continue to write.
• Wiki is now complete and ready to
use with my classes.
Challenges
• Building my wiki page was very time
consuming, using “trial and error” to
set it up how I wanted it to look.
Wikispaces was a little more difficult
than I thought it would be.
• There are so many exciting Web 2.0
applications I want to try and it can be
overwhelming.

4. The Moodle Experience
• This is not my first time using Moodle. I have taken classes online classes through
Chester and Berks counties in the past and have a good understanding of Moodle.
It is easy to navigate and the course guidelines and assignments are set up in an
organized fashion. The use of a Moodle for online learning is a natural fit and a
great tool for students. Additionally, you can access information from classes
taken in the past at each IU, which I did this past year to help with Google Docs
applications.

5. My Wiki
• Made using wiki spaces
• Will use with all of my classes
• Students will respond online to discussion topics every week.
• Homework and classwork assignments as well as calendar of with due dates will be
accessible to students
• Copies of completed class notes can be downloaded by students
• Links for students to help with class content
• Unit pages that include videos, pictures and other cool information for use in and out of
class.

6. • Used blogger.com
• Topic is “Outside the classroom,” which chronicles what kids can learn when
they are not in school. I used my own family for the things we did this
summer and plan to keep up with things we do during weekends and holidays
throughout the year.
• Would like others to comment or follow to hear about their experiences. I
plan to share this with my colleagues.

7. • RSS stands for Rich Site Summary
• It is a collection of self selected websites and blogs that change their content
frequently. These sites syndicate their content.
• The benefit is that all your favorite news websites and blogs are found in one place.
• RSS Feeders can be organized into categories such as News, Education, Technology,
Sports, Health, etc.
• Allows you to stay up to date on sites you follow with a glance at the feeder.
• My class content is partially based on current events, so this will allow me to quickly
scan for news stories of interest.
• I used Bloglines as my RSS Feeder.

8. • Web 2.0 is called the second generation of the world wide web because is has web
based platforms for programs.
• It allows people to easily collaborate and share ideas and content
• Examples include wikis, blogs, Wordle, Animoto, Prezi and thousands more!
• I chose to do a Prezi.
• Prezi is like PowerPoint on steroids.
• It is a web-based presentation tool that uses a canvas and lets you to zoom to certain
places to highlight details of a main idea. It follows an order set by the Prezi creator.
• Allows for creativity and is an alternative to traditional presentation software.