Thing #14

Wiki Wow! I am still trying to process all this information and decide how to use it. I enjoyed reading the information, and again, went on a wild adventure. Each click of the mouse led me to something new and interesting. I searched through several wikis and was most impressed with the student input and products on several of them.

Thousands Project seemed like one of the most useful and informative blogs. It is an excellent example of kids writing, collaborating, commenting, sharing, learning, and creating. Different students could make entries about school or about something personal and other students responded and commented. I loved the idea of gathering the 1000 ideas. That must have given students something to look forward to. I liked the teacher's introduction as he set expectations or norms for the purpose and use of his wiki, and I like that he cautioned the audience to be responsible with comments. He also included links to other sites that would be of interest to the bloggers or the readers. Another great feature was that he had his lesson plans on the blog. This gives students an agenda, administration something quick and easy to monitor, and parents a partnership in the learning.

The Kindergarten Counting Book was a fun idea and I loved they way so many people got involved in finding new ways to represent the numbers. This site encouraged creativity and was simple enough for children. At first I thought the site had some cool links because I found a link to Ed Helper and Spanish materials. I realized later these were Google ads and along with the good ads came some not so good ads. I do not think that ads are appropriate with students working on the blogs so I would definitely find a wiki that was ad-free as they mentioned.

I really enjoyed the Salute to Seuss and loved the kids artwork. They used Photo Story 3 to tell their stories, so again, the students had a great place to display their products. The wiki allows parents, grandparents, other teachers, and other students to see student products and presentations. This brings learning home and sends it out globally.

I will look for a use with my staff. Gathering information by emails is difficult and very hard to keep up with. This sounds like a much better way, and I am anxious to find a way to use it in my planning. Other administrators and I might be able to use a wiki when planning our SOP days. We can begin listing all the things we need to cover and offer ideas for some fun or quick ways to cover certain items. I did notice most of the wikis were protected.