Learning with Blogs and Wikis

As a Kindergarten teacher, I often use the internet to search for new ideas while I plan my lessons. Bill Ferriter has opened my eyes to a whole new way I can use the internet to enhance my teaching. I feel very strongly about the importance of professional development. As a young teacher with little experience, I look to other professionals around my school and at Bank Street to learn and grow as a teacher. While both of these places are great resources and will remain as my primary contact, I am inspired to begin developing new ideas and strategies from people I would never have otherwise met. Like Ferriter mentions, in blogs "educators are actively reflecting on instruction, challenging assumptions, questioning policies, offering advice, designing solutions, and learning together." In my opinion, there is no excuse for ignoring these opportunities of professional development. The internet makes information accessible, is easy to sort through and most of the time takes no time at all. However, due to the mass amounts of information Ferriter makes professional development even easier. He promotes the use of feed readers, which are "free tools that can automatically check nearly any Web site for new content dozens of times each day, limiting the amount of time spent browsing and customizing learning experiences." Ferriter mentions that wikis can also be a great tool for professional development. I agree that it is another way for educators to interact and get ideas from each other, however, I do not feel like wikis have the same advantages as blogs. In order to partake in a wiki, educators must know each other and all have a password to the wiki. Wikis allow professionals to gain information from the people they know, unlike blogs which introduce teachers to unknown resources.