Oh yay! So excited that I was
picked for this topic because I started using Wikispaces in my classroom last
year. I was planning on using it this year, but in April. Although, on my way
home this afternoon I was thinking about allowing my students to use the Wiki
next week.
Before
I get a little ahead of myself let me tell you about my wonderful class. I have
22 third graders. Yes, third graders using a wiki! Last week Lacey said, “ The article talks
about how we consider children to be born into technology as "digital
natives" and their parents are "immigrants.” Let’s be real for a
second, how many students use their devices for educational reasons? They are “digital
natives”, but not so much for education reasons. So using a wiki to do educational work is pretty impressive for children that
are ranging from 7 to 8 years old. Since
I have not done a wiki with my class this year, my post is going to be
referring to my other great class last year. Last
year, I had 26 third grade students and they loved the wiki. I had students who would turn in fake money they earned from their class jobs just to
spend five minutes on the wiki to do work.
Why
did I make the Wiki? In one of our college classes we had to do a paper on the
two wikis we were using for the class. As part of the assignment I needed the student’s input about what one my
students would like to use in the classroom. One day during class, I showed my
students the two wikis I was using in class and said, “Can you help Ms. M with
her homework?” I showed them the PBworks wiki and Wikispaces, I was using it in
my class. Then I let them play on my wikis to see what one they liked best and
was the easiest to navigate. Once they
were done I collected their input. And I
thought I was done, I really did this for the paper not because I wanted
them to use a wiki. Then one of them said can we make one? And as they say the
rest was history.
As it says in our
text, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts and Other
Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will
Richardson, “ There is no doubt that
teachers on the K-12 levels are going to be hard pressed to justify the use of
such an open venue for the publication of student work.”(p.60) With that quote in mind here is my
justification for my wiki. I also made the Wiki because I thought this year we
were going to a Smart Balance test, and I wanted my students to get use to
explaining their answers and becoming more metacognitive, instead of just radio
buttons test. I really like using the
wiki because my students worked in teams of four or more and they all could
help each other, explain their answers and show other students different strategies
that work from them. At first the wiki did not turn out the way I wanted them to use
it. Some of them would just type their answer, and then spend the rest of their
time using it like an instant messenger ,which is fine if it was related to
work. Once I saw they were not taking it seriously, I had to regroup myself ,and
show them how I wanted them to use the wiki. After a few long months, they
finally started using the wiki the way I wanted them to use it.
After
my students told me they wanted a wiki, I had a ton of questions running
through my head. Such as why am I making
this wiki? What can third graders do
with a wiki ? I feel I am not a lone,many teachers do not use them because they
have no clue what is a good purpose, how to use a wiki, why to use and their students
are not old enough. I understand these
were questions I first faced right before I made my wiki, I did not see this
last long in my classroom and it did! I am proud to say, I am one of the
success stories of using a wiki in my classroom. According to Richardson,
“ in using wikis, students are not only
learning how to publish content; they are also learning how to develop and use
all sorts of collaborative skills, negotiating with others to agree on
correctness, meaning, relevance and more.” (p.61.)
Page
63 in Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts and Other
Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will
Richardson give many different example of wikis uses in the class.
Thomas Friedman uses the wiki in his class to connect with another school in
Bangladesh to do a collaborative and investigative project about the world flat . Once the
students were done they were to give a report on their wiki.I found this cool
website called teacherforteachers.net
and it has a page about the wiki use in the classroom and it also gives
examples of real teachers using the wiki in their classroom. I really like this
wiki I found called The Third Dimension.
I like it because these two teachers are using this wiki as like a classroom
page. I also like how their first page is a
Glogster and people can click it to use different links. This is a good
example of using it for the parents too. I used my wiki last year, as a discussion board.
Every week, I would post some type of math or reading questions relating to our
curriculum. The students would have a week to post an answer and then reply to
their classmates’ answers. The other
goal I wanted to accomplish is I wanted my students to feel like this wiki was
there wiki. It was just not another medium that I was monitoring and telling
them what to do. Although, I did monitor it because one bad word gets out and
there goes the day. Being a teacher it
is a fine line of what role we can and want to take on to make sure we do not
scare our students away from sharing their ideas.
I
love my wiki, I can go on for days telling you everything about it. The good,
the bad and ugly, but you have a life and I am sure you are done reading my
ramble. I just want to touch super fast on safety because our book talks about
that a lot. On my wiki account for my classroom, I have it on super tight lock
down. To enter the site the students need passwords and they have to be invited
our request permission to join. All their post are private, and I do not allow
them to post any pictures. I do not allow them to take the wiki login in home
because I can not monitor the website 24/7 and I just need one bad Youtube
video posted on a Friday night and there goes my job. I really do encourage you
to at least try a wiki in your room and share your stories with me. Trust me at
first you will get the silly stuff, and you may ask yourself why did I do this?
But guide your students about the proper way to handle the wiki, and push
through the bad. In the end you will have a success story to.
All my Love,
Ms.M
http://makul1n.wikispaces.com/ The link to my class's wiki.
Works
Cited
Norris, Nadine.
"Wikis in the Classroom." Technology Integration for Teachers.
5 Aug. 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.techforteachers.net/wikis-in-the-classroom.html>.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (Third ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.
"Smart
Teaching - Top Online Teaching Programs." Smart Teaching RSS. 4 Aug.
2008. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/>.
Today watching Usher Live!
This is my computer area.