Good communication strengthens instruction. Whether it’s collaboration among educators, sharing information with parents, or being available to students outside class, new Internet tools make it easy for even the least technology-savvy teachers and catechists to maintain a Web-presence that supports effective communication. Two popular tools are Weblogs and wikis.

Using Blogs and Wikis
A Weblog, or blog, is a website where entries are posted in a journal format in reverse chronological order. And, when permitted by the blog owner, readers may add comments. Catholic Faith Education is an example of a blog written for Catholic educators. To experiment with a blog of your own, try:

---edublogs: This blog-hosting site is a favorite among teachers, offering no cost, ad-free blogs to educators. Simply sign up for an account and start blogging. New users can find help through video tutorials and forum discussions linked to the edublogs home page.

---Blogger: One of Google’s free tools, Blogger is also very popular with educators. However, there is one issue educators need to know about: the “Next Blog” button in the navigation bar may lead to inappropriate blogs. The easiest solution is to select a template design that does not include a navigation bar.

A wiki is a website that allows multiple users to add and edit content. Because wikis make on-going collaboration so easy, they are natural tools for school projects. See an example of how two religion teachers and their students used a wiki to study environmental issues, then set up your own wiki using:

---pbwiki: Educators may set up ad-free, no cost wikis (select ‘Education’ as the wiki’s purpose). Wikis may be public or private, allowing you to limit access to students and parents.

---wetpaint: Another free wiki site that is attracting growing numbers of educators is wetpaint. Use the link provided here to go directly to the education page and create an ad-free wiki.

Lent and Easter Resources
Keeping the liturgical calendar in mind, this final list of websites concludes with resources you and your students can use as you prepare for Lent and Easter.

---Lenten Activity for Kids: Help your students make clay prayer pots for use at home throughout the season of Lent.

---Resources for Catholic Educators: Lent: This page provides links to Lent-related activities, articles, and prayers.

---Activites — Liturgical Year, Lent, and Easter: Extensive lists of links to activities for Lent and Easter for home and classroom use.

---Lent and Easter—A Sourcebook for Families: Excerpts from a book edited by Helen Hull Hitchcock covering a variety of topics related to Lent and Easter.

---Catholic Catechist—Lent/Easter: Catholic Catechist offers lesson plans and activities to catechists. This link takes you to a list of free, downloadable files for Lent and Easter activities.

---Telling the Easter Story: Use this activity written by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick to help your students tell the story of Easter.

Important Note:
Some TLC articles provide links to other websites solely for the user’s convenience and reference. By providing these links, OCP assumes no responsibility for, nor does it necessarily endorse these websites, their content, their links, or their sponsoring organizations.

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A former Catholic school teacher, Susan Brooks-Young writes the “Technology in the Classroom” feature for Today’s Catholic Teacher. She is a frequent contributor to other professional journals and author of several books on technology use in K–12 education.