Thing 21

Wikis are a wonderful way of sharing and collaborating. I see it as a wonderful way for me to share training resources and curricular links with staff, parents and students. I used one with elementary students called "Spice it Up a Notch". It was created by teachers at a RESC. Classrooms were invited to join and comment on literary aspects of Nutmeg books. As part of their post students could add videos, add a sequel to the book, add images, add internet links to expand on topics such as the setting in the book among other things. As an example, one book took place near the Grand Canyon so the student was able to create a hyperlink to a site with more information and photos. What I liked a lot was the support materials that were included including a parent permission letter and a student contract for appropriate etiquette when using the internet. I also liked that the students didn't need an email account but rather were given a login and password unique for them. We, as the teachers, created those. We also did not allow anything to be posted without our approval.

The major hurdle with this particular wiki was that not all teachers edited or looked at their students posting of information and discussion questions. I found that there were many errors in several of the "posts" as well as some "silly - unthought out" questions. As with much of the Web 2.0 tools a big hurdle is access. Since not all students have the ability to "post" at home we would need to get creative to find opportunities for them to post at school.