Thing #14

And I just thought wikis were for signing up for a time in the library!! I now know there are so many things that can be done on wiki. The three wikis I chose to discuss were all very different. The first wiki was designed for community input on a topic, the second wiki was all photographs, and the third wiki so detailed and well produced. I tried to stay away from the older grades and focus on the younger. This helped me with ideas. The wiki that I am just amazed with is the Go West wiki. The organization and all that went into creating it. I would love to do something like this with my first graders. I could start out small at the being of the year modeling with learning maps. After teaching all of maps give them a topic and they could create or add to the wiki.


Wiki - Schools in the Past
I loved this! It was a community wiki. Mrs. Cassidy's 1st grade class set up a wiki on schools in the past. She gave readers detailed instructions on how to use the wiki. What amazing information that classroom receive throughout this project. Mrs. Cassidy had different topics that could be commented on:

*playgrounds
*library
*number of students in a classroom
*what was studied
*school rules
*Was there any thing else that was different?

As you read through the comments, you see that other added and gave more detail to what was written. The last topic was replied with the wiki being different. This person who responded to this wiki was a teacher and gave a link to her wiki site.

Wiki - Kindergarten Counting Book
This wiki was done using photos that were taken to show how the students captured items 1 to 100. The students counted out items, labeled them with the number, took picture, loaded it on wiki and typed in their name and number. This seems like a lot of work for parents to do. Most parents in our neighborhood would not have access to all of these procedures. This looks more like a teacher wiki with student help at school.

Wiki - Go West
This wiki was put together by third graders to show what they had learned about Westward Expansion along the Oregon Trail. Student had learning webs, time lines, writings, drawings, slide shows of themselves, glossary, thinking maps, recipes, fun facts and teacher reflection page. This wiki is loaded with a great deal of student learning. This is exciting to see. Students product with teacher guidance.