WINTERBORO+HIGH+PROFESSIONAL+CONVERSATIONS

January 22, 2007

 * Wiki** - is a Web Page with an Edit button on it! It means quick or fast in it's country of origin - Hawaii. To bring it home...it is no different than the black board or white board in your classroom. When you are not looking...they love to write on it.


 * Wiki usually signals Wikipedia**, the online encyclopedia that launched a thousand debates about the veracity of collaborative information. To me, a teacher trying to keep her audience captive longer than the 30 second bleeps they give their parents, it is a //God send//. It's a way to trick them into having fun learning something that you are out of ways to teach with enthusiasm. **It is the closest thing to MySpace for them!**

MySpace has been blocked by most city and county Technology teams because some kids have gone wild. They will __say__ and __post__ anything!


 * The beauty of Wiki is that __you can track all changes__** and you can only accept those you want on your space. Now we all know that there are those out there determined to mess up a good thing but right now, all seems to be going well! The 21st Century initiative supports this form of expression and communication as a means to keep up with our fast track multi-tasking students.


 * HOW CAN I USE IT?** No matter what your subject, you can easily manage a Wiki. Wiki's are a way to get students to teach themselves about new concepts and terms. For example, I take six new terms having to do with Web 2.0 and create a page in the wiki for each term. I give the students a template and say, "This is a structure for what I want you to find. Find examples and write reviews." Then I pair them up, and they complete the wiki forms in groups. They have to ask themselves, "What do I not know about this topic?" So they formulate their questions and go on the Internet --//no copy and pasting allowed// --and every source must be hyperlinked.

Have an introductory day. Show all of them, once __you__ have learned, how to Edit the Page and how you want things done. Post an example for future reference on your site. See who already knows about Wiki's or who catches on really fast. Survey say's... it's one of your micheavious ones. Make them incharge of the computer for Wiki purposes. This builds self-esteem and directs energy into a positive direction. Assign 2 students per day who will go to the Wiki the last 10 minutes of class and post an overview of what was taught in class that day. Attach a grade to this assignment per grading period.
 * LET'S SAY YOU ONLY HAVE ONE STUDENT COMPUTER?**


 * Give them definite information to post like:** Read page 32, exercises 1-4 were discussed and completed in class. Tell them to provide a brief description of what you said, and then to post the homework assignment for the night.


 * WHAT DID THIS ACCOMPLISH?** Well, you've handed down responsibility in a fun sort of way. You are incorporating technology into the classroom, you have given absent students a place to go and retreive their assignments and homework and taken the "monkey" off of your back! You added a little fun to possibly a boring subject. To take it one step further, you can use your wiki and the notes students have provided as your review for testing.


 * ADVANTAGES:**


 * Joint collaboration** with like classes from other schools. Arrange with a friend teacher at another school to share a site and collaborate jointly about coursework or particular subjects. Ask open ended discussion quesitons about your weekly lessons and require students to answer. Take a topic like the book THE WORLD IS FLAT that you require your class to read. Have the two classes collaborate and create a Wiki encyclopedia of the impacts of Friedman's so called flattener's -- offshoring, open source technology, the fall of communisim, etc.

Wiki's can tie into your blog, your podcasts, videos, and a group calendar.


 * Contributions are trackable**, allowing teachers to see which students are contributing, and how much and how thoughtfully. Many teachers use their Wiki to __grade__ their students on organization, imagination, multimedia and usefulness. Wiki's retain their history. You can always go back and recapture their history and recapture deleted information. They don't go away unlike traditional poster-board presentations. Later in the year you or the student can go back to the Wiki and refresh your minds.

Wiki's demand a small but important mental adjustment. You will have to make yourself comfortable with the Wiki.


 * TRUST YOUR AUDIENCE!!** Traditionally, the approach to these kinds of tools has been, "let's make sure only the right people access it, that entries are moderated, that comments are approved before posted." But the Wiki model really doesn't work that way. Wiki's work best when everyone is allowed to contribute the way that's best for them. **A FORM OF ACCOMODATION!!** The group moderates the information. This means having faith in your students.


 * MOST STUDENTS RISE TO THE OCCASION!** When they understand that everyone in class can see and read...they put more thought into it. Their grammar and punctuation aren't so easily left by the wayside. They take a greater stake in what they say. They think before they speak. They become proud. **THEY BEGIN TO WORK ON IT DURING STUDY HALL, ON THE WEEKENDS, AND THEY FIND SOMETHING A WEEK LATER AND GO BACK AND CORRECT IT!!!

You can keep parents posted as to what's going on in your classroom!** It takes 10 to 20 minutes a day to update and or change your Wiki depending on how detailed you want to be. It's not like posting your lesson plans to STI. You can invite your parents to join and they can go look and see your date of assignments and when their child completed the assignement.


 * I used it to assign my advanced students the work** they needed to do while I was visiting Shelby School of Technology last Thursday. I instructed my sub to have my students go to their assignments on the Wiki.

= =