Thing #8

It’s wiki-mania!  I have seen wikis before, and I’ve always thought they were the neatest idea.  To allow a whole host of people to edit and manage one website to benefit the group is a really clever idea.  I investigated many wikis through this week’s discovery exercise, and I found some neat things.

Great Debate 2008 – Being married to a “political junkie,” I can appreciate an online forum for discussion and debate about political ideas.  Anything that keeps CNN and CSPAN off my TV for two minutes is fantastic!  In all seriousness, I love that this wiki gives sutdents the ability to debate ideas and present both sides of an argument.  I noticed that several of the students provided thorough bibliographies for the information they included, but others did not.  This wiki did a great job of imbedding videos.

Kindergarten Counting Book – I don’t teach kindergarten (and hopefully never will), but I couldn’t resist the temptation to see how in the world 5-year-olds would participate in a wiki.  This is the cutest idea, using photos instead of written words to express ideas and understanding.  I would be curious to know if the students contributed to the wiki in the classroom or at home.  And, were they able to do it alone or with the assistance of an adult?

Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio – I teach in a private school, so I am not held to the strict QCC/GPS nightmare I spent so many months learning about in college; however, I understand and appreciate the need to set standards that your students should achieve by the end of a lesson, unit, and school year.  What this wiki does so well is get the students involved in explaining those standards.  In mathematics in particular, it is very important that students learn to summarize their learning.  Mathematics is a tricky language to learn, and this wiki provides a great environment for expressing it.  By turning the wiki into a collaborative project, the students summarized what they learned in a creative, safe environment.  I also like that the teacher commented on the students’ submissions and created a “Hall of Fame,” where he picked the best of the best entires.

Room 15 Wiki – I like how this wiki combines everything related to the classroom (homework assignments, student work, class expectations, brain teasers, etc.) in one place.  It makes it easy for the students and parents to find what they need.

Small Stones - This wiki is incredible (It’s also very easy to navigate)!  It’s the best example of incorporating Web 2.0 tools into the math classroom that I’ve seen to date. What a fantastic idea to take the day’s lesson, summarize it in an easy-to-navigate format, and archive it for students to access at any time.  One thing – I couldn’t figure out who created the daily entires, the students or teacher.  If I were to create a wiki like this, I think it would be neat to have the students create the entries, reflecting on what was introduced in class each day, explaining the new concepts, making connections to old material, etc.  After seeing this wiki, I am very optimistic about being able to use one in my own classroom!