Thing 21: Wikis

It was great seeing all of the different uses for Wikis. This is a tool that I was very curious and motivated to find out more about. Fortunately, I was given the experience of creating an account and becoming a member of a Wiki through some coursework that I am currently completing.

Some of the Wikis that stood out as I was exploring include...

NHS Pathfinders-It is great to see a place where students can find their teachers and click on links that'll help them more efficiently find resources for their specific area of research. What a timesaver! Where was this when I was in high school?

Arbor Heights Elementary School Wiki-This is a great way for keeping all parents informed of the in's and out's of the school. What's nice about it and different from a school website, is that others can add to it. For example, if the PTO is planning a movie night, they can add that announcement to the Wiki. If the leader of the Robotics Club has a change in meeting times, they can go on and edit the changes. With a website, only the creator can edit it.

6th Grade Remedial Work-This wiki stood out for me because it originates from a class for students learning the English language in Portugal. It was created by the teacher for students who were having difficulty in learning the English language. The teacher added remedial exercises that practiced and reinforced the lessons that they had in class. Additionally, as the students completed each of the exercises, the teacher was able to provide feedback.

How to Create and e-Portfolio-This wiki was beneficial to me because I have been wanting to do this with my class for several years now. I just didn't know how to get started. This site was able to provide some excellent pointers.

In the upcoming year, I'd like to create a wiki for responding to literature. In the past, students have been required to read each night and then to respond to the reading in their Reader's Response journals. I would love to be able to set up a wiki so that the students can respond on the wiki instead. I think that this would actually help foster a more interactive conversation between myself and the kids. I also think that it would help their writing, as they would see actual examples of how their peers write. Furthermore, the wiki will serve almost as a portfolio as it will include work all the way up until the end of the year. This would be a wonderful tool for me when completing report cards and holding conferences, as it an example of student work. One hurtle that I know that I will encounter is actually creating a wiki myself. I've edited on a wiki that has already been created by someone else, but have never actually created one myself. Additionally, I'm not quite sure how to set the wiki up for my purposes. As I mentioned before, the students would respond each night to their reading. In the first month of school, I have them work on just creating summaries, as many students do more of a retell, as opposed to a summary. Once they have mastered summaries, I give them a grid with about 24 different "prompts" that they can answer about their reading. I'm not quite sure how I would set this up (Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated). I plan to collaborate with our Technology Specialist to see if we can come up with a solution to these hurtles together. Another hurtle that I think I will encounter is students who are maybe not as appropriate as they should be. To overcome this hurtle, I plan to make it clear to the students from the beginning that there is a history on a wiki and that I can go back and find out exactly who was being inappropriate. If this doesn't make the kids think twice about publishing anything inappropriate, then the first time someone gets caught hopefully will teach them the lesson. This brings me to the next hurtle. All of this requires a lot of monitoring on my part, however, this just replaces reading the RR journals each week so I don't think that it'll require any more time than I already commit. A final hurtle that will need to be overcome is the fact that not all students have internet access from home or their parents don't allow them to go on the internet. Some options are that they can submit a handwritten entry in their RR journals, they can go to the public library, or stay after school.