communication



Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
 * Communication and Collaboration**
 * a**. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
 * b**. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
 * c**. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
 * d.** contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

All of the sites so far (wordle, slideshow, etc) get the students to share their ideas with their peers. The think/write/pair/share/revise method is ongoing as students keep adding to their work. As the students share their ideas, they learn from each other, about each other, and about themselves and the ways they think. A wiki can take that learning further because the collaborators don't have to be sitting next to each other to think/write/pair/share/revise. The classroom truly becomes global with the use of wikis to coordinate student work.
 * **How is communication different from collaboration?** Communication is necessary for collaboration. People cannot truly work together if they don't let their thoughts, needs, and questions be heard
 * **How can the technologies we have used so far meet the communication and collaboration objects as outlined above?**
 * **How can a wiki be used as a tool for online collaboration?**

Blogging as a communication tool
Blogging is a good tool if there is a lot to say- for me it has a very similar feel to the wikipages we've been using. I have never blogged before now but found it pretty simple to navigate and create. See my blog for some thoughts on technology in the classroom. It would be useful to communicate ideas across a distance- to another school, city or country- but it seems to be too "big" just to be used in one classroom for students to communicate with one another. It would take some time.