06.29.08
Thing 9 – A Quicki Wiki
As part of this K12 Learning 2.0 course, I created a wiki, something I’m pretty excited about because I can now see many uses for this type of tool in the classroom. Take a look!
06.24.08
Thing 8 – How Do You Say “Cool” in Hawaiian?
Because I haven’t had much experience with wikis, the possibilities I could imagine for wiki use in my classroom amounted only to kid-created, collaborative glossaries (perhaps around book clubs or social studies units of study), weekly newsletters, or book club discussion forums. But after looking at several great examples of some education-based wikis that are out there, I realize that a wiki is not a forum or a simple place to share ideas. Yes, ideas are exchanged through wikis, but more importantly, ideas are changed: expanded on, reflected on, switched, reversed, reconsidered, edited, made more meaningful, empowered. What happens on a wiki is up to the editor(s)!
My favorite thing I came across while trying to better understand wikis, their uses, and their organization was Mr. Monson’s Thousands Project. I tried to imagine the sense of community, involvement, excitement, and empowerment my class from last year might have felt if they had witnessed people from all over the world submitting their thoughts about the monthly questions posed. And get this: one purpose of the wiki was to learn more about geography! What a great cross-curricular goal! I was excited to contribute to the May, June, July, and August post: What are things you are going to do over the summer months? Maybe someone over in India somewhere is interested in the pleasure reading that an Atlanta teacher has planned for her summer!
Another wiki that caught my attention came from my own backyard. A fifth grade class at Woodward Academy used their wiki to share their thoughts about Turn Homeward, Hannalee by Patricia Beatty. This wiki helped me envision what a book club-type wiki might look like. I liked how each component of this wiki was categorized on the left-hand side for easy access, and I LOVED hearing actual student voices as they engaged in reader’s theater podcasts straight from the book. What a great way for students to share thinking with one another, with parents and other teachers, and with new wiki users like myself! In the past I have had my students record their conversations to practice reading fluency and strong discussion skills, but then I always struggled with what to do with their recordings once I had them. Uploading them to a wiki seems like a smart way to show students that their thoughts matter and that they have an audience.
I wonder if anyone out there grew up feeling the way I did about math. I always felt like a math dunce and would readily admit that I “hated math.” Now, as a teacher of math, I feel like I’ve turned over a new leaf, and sharing an appreciation for math learning that wasn’t conveyed to me as a child is a personal goal each year. That’s why I was excited to come across another wiki, all about Primary Math. While this wiki did help me decide that I personally like the Wikispaces format better than the WetPaint format, I loved browsing through this site. As I looked through pictures and read about students’ practical applications of math concepts, my first thought was about how neat it would be for my students to put together a culminating wiki detailing their knowledge of a unit of study once it was completed. But wait! That defeats the purpose of a wiki, right? My students would benefit most by seeing their mathematical thinking evolve all the way across a unit of study, so why not start the wiki right off the bat? At the end, they’d still be able to compare their original thoughts to where their understanding ended up!
