My first year, some of my charming students (who wanted As) told me, "Hey Ms. Lorey, look what the definition for 'Athena' is on this site! When I walked over, my name appeared on the screen. As flattered as I was to receive the title "goddess of wisdom," I knew it was some sort of trick. My students were trying to get As and were flattering me...but how were they doing it? After I sat staring in confusion for some time, my students finally decided to enlighten me about wikis. This was my first experience with wikipedia.
Since that day, I have learned a little about wikipedia, however, I did not build my own wiki until tonight. The wiki I decided to build was one for my class council. We are in charge of planning prom this year and have mock rock, winterfest, and other activities at the same time. My students are supposed to meet every Thursday morning, and my principal graciously allowed our students to meet for a half day last month, but we are still having difficulty communicating with one another all of the time. I am excited to share my wiki with my students and co-advisor tomorrow, because I think it will be a highly affective way to communicate and get some things done for prom!
After having read the article and watched the tutorials over wiki's, I have come to realize that they could definitely be used for educational purposes other than organization. I think I will try having students work on a wiki in collaboration with a couple other students to develop a review guide for the Odyssey this unit. I also think this will be a great way for my journalism students to communicate when we have snow days or when we are not in class. Email is outdated and half my students don't check their emails on a regular basis. Texting proves to be easier for them because they can directly communicate with one another and get immediate feedback. The wikispace will allow students to communicate with one another as well. In combination with flickr, RSS feeds, and social networking sites, the process of acquiring materials for the newspaper has become much easier!
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How exciting! What a wonderful idea - one I know your students will love. One enterprising teacher I know has a wiki for her Spanish class. Her students turn in their work and communicate with each other in Spanish. There is a way to sign up your students as a group. You just create a data base and send it to Wikispaces - they take care of the rest. Directions should be on this page near the bottom: http://www.wikispaces.com/help+teachers
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