Hi Everyone,
I have used wikis in the past and think they can be useful tools when it comes to discussions and English and History lessons. The Honors history and English classes use these in their curriculum and they do a wonderful job. I'm not sure how much use I would have for it though. I like them and think there is a lot of potential when using them as webpages too. I actually prefer Wix right now, but started off with blogster. I had to create a webpage using wikispaces for a Wilkes class but honestly did not like it as much as Wix or Glogster.
-Cecelia Candelario
To Julie Cerasoli:
I saw you said your students had a problem accessing the information from home. I don't know how you would do this personally, but if you could talk to someone in IT at your school and have them place a link on your school's webpage, it might work for your students to access it at home as well. I know my students had access that way (if they decided to ever use it-- which they didn't).
--Kelly Herrmann
I have never used a Wiki site prior to this class. I've heard of it in my new teacher induction program because some of our middle schools were starting to implement it. They were also discussing using it to inform the community about events and updates in the district. I think this would be a great idea to use in the classroom-especially for homework help. In my Honors Geometry class, I assign a lot of proofs to do. Using this site, my students could colloborate on the best and most efficient way to solve them. This idea reminds me of our Discussions boards where we can each answer the questions on our own time. What I like better with this is we can see everyone's post all together. --LeighAnn Burke
I have yet to ever use a wiki page, but my school (Harrisburg School District) has links on our homepage for Google Applications. From what I know of wiki pages (which isn't much) they seem fairly similar. On Google Applications, I can upload documents or simple instructions and my students can simply see them or they can edit them as well. I did not get a chance to use the application with group projects because of time constraints and technological difficulties, however, it did prove to be a valuable way for students who were absent to get missed work if they had internet access. It would just mean keeping up with posting the information. Also, since it was set up by the school district, I had issues with some students not being registered in the application for whatever reason. Some I believe it was because they were new students, but others had been in my class all year long, so I was not sure how they did not have access. If anyone has used Google Applications and Wiki spaces, I was wondering if you had a preference for using either one. Does one have better tools and easier access? Google Apps has email and a calendar... do wiki spaces?
----Kelly Herrmann
The first time I used a wiki page was last summer through WIlkes -- a PLS class. I am a 4th grade teacher in the Easton Area School District and I haven't had the opportunity to use this format with the student yet. I sometimes find them confusing, but I also like how people can interact and post comments. I really don't think they would be appropriate for 4th graders, just because they are still learning the computer basics. However, I do like the ideas that were shared here.
--Tracy Bozik
I was first introduced to wikis last summer during an inservice. Our district has an intranet through Share Point. I am currently a co-op coordinator and business teacher at my high school. In the beginning of the year, I developed a wiki for my Business Law class. Every week I assigned a different student to add to the wiki the assignments that were covered during the week. That way, if a student was absent, they just needed to access the wiki to find out what they missed. The unfortunate part of creating a wiki on our school's intranet, is that you had to be at school to access, the student's could not access it from home. So this summer I am creating a wiki through wikispaces for my co-op students. It is very hard to keep in touch with your students over the summer, so I want them to be able to contact me to let me know if they have a job for next school year, etc. I will also be able to post any available jobs for those students seeking one. I think that this will work out for me and my students in regards to the co-op program. --Julie Cerasoli
I am sorry that I didn't make this clearer. This page was for the Spring semester Ed 585 class. If you notice the link to Summer08Wikis on the left, I would like you to post your comments on that page. Please feel free to read what my Spring class wrote because they have some great comments and resources you can check out when you have time.
I have copied and pasted comments from the May-June class to the Summer wiki page. Again, I am so sorry for the confusion. If you have any questions, please email me through the course website. Thanks, Barb
Our faculty was introduced to wiki's at the end of last year during an in-service day and I was amazed at how well they can be used to work on projects together. That fact that everyone has access and the ability to edit information has great benefits. Since that workshop, I have only been invited to join a wiki twice and have not implemented them in my classroom. When I do implement wiki's in my classroom, I will create a wiki and have students search for information on Algebra and put that information on the wiki. I will also ask them to include links to Algebra web sites and tutorials.
I think wiki’s are cool as well! I was first introduced to them last summer while attending a National Endowment for the Humanities summer grant program at the F.D.R. Library. A fellow attendee put together a wiki site for all of us to utilize. She complied lesson plan ideas, resources, cool sites etc. What was really amazing was being able to talk to fellow attendees throughout the school year! We shared ideas and resources as we came across them. It has been great to share that level of collegiality with them.
Unfortunately I have not begun to implement them in my own classroom yet. We are in the dark ages as far as access to technology where I work. We are working to increase our funding. We will then have the use of more computers to walk my students though the usefulness of sites like these. -Ellen Resnek
I'm with everyone else - never heard of a wiki and have never used one before. It was not hard to work in, and it seems like a giant blog. I visited some of the sites and found them interesting, but like every site out on the web, it takes a lot of time to search and find what you are looking for. I like keeping up with the technology, so I asked several of my classes if they heard of a wiki and if they've used it. I got a mixed reaction. I see it as a resouce for my classroom and a possible (safe) site for sharing ideas. Thank you for this interesting topic - I feel like I've got to get out more! ~Ruth Guenther
Ok, so I feel really silly. Like many in this class, I've had very little exposure to wiki's. To be honest, I thought "Wikipedia" was the only wiki and I had a negative view of wiki's before navigating through some of the links listed on this page. The reason for this negative stance, was I had heard a couple of kids in colleague's class had actually written themselves into a battle in the Civil War and cited it in a research paper.
I really like the PBWiki site and think it is a great resource to share ideas for a class in a safe fashion. I still am nowhere near comfortable with wiki's but, "Rome wasn't built in a day". I think there were some other math teachers in the group so I'll list this link:
Thanks for the opportunity to get immersed in the 21st century.
-Phil Matilla
Wikis are new to me, as well. I haven't heard of them before this unit. I did explore the informational website about Wikis and found it interesting to be able to provide students with focused websites that can pertain to a unit of study. I also like the collaboration component that it provides. I learned in my brain based learning class that collaboration is crucial for long term learning. I do think it would be challenging to teach students how to use wikispace. However, this could be taught with the computer curriculum and then used in content area classes. I have created and used webquests to keep learners focused on purposefully selected websites rather than have them surf the web for information. It is another way to keep students focused, safe, and on track. As for collaboration, we worked through the webquests in cooperative learning groups.
I have never been on this site before, nor have I heard of it. I agree with Chris that it is a little hard to navigate, and being as I teach first and second graders, I think this may be too difficult for them. I do like the fact that it is a safe area for students to get classroom information from. I think this would be a great resource for older students.-Susan Donchez
I have never been on this site before and I have not heard of it either. I think having a safe place for students to go to to get directions for projects is a great idea. It is a little hard to navigate. But my students may be better at it then me.
-Chris Steigerwalt
This is my first experience with wikispace. I recently heard about wikis during a training with my district, but I had not visited one or added comments to one before. It seems I am not the only one as I look at the responses from my classmates on this page! The idea that information can be accessed by so many people at the same time from different locations is great. There are so many possibilities for using this kind of site with students, although I see it being more useful with older students. A wikispace would be a great resource for a classroom instead of a class website. It could be used to give homework, have a comment space for both students and parents, a place to share and highlight student work, a resource to answer homework or curriculum related questions, and so much more.
I'm trying to think of a way that my teaching partner and I can use this with our current fourth grade class. I will keep you updated. :) - Michele Kerns
This is my first time ever hearing about wikispace. I enjoy the idea of being able to post comments and assignments online for both students and parents to view. I think students could benefit from using such a communication tool. I also like that you can post other website links to give students easy access to finding "long named" web addresses. It does take a little while to completely understand how to use a blog site like this. I'm sure there are advanced ways to use it to get the full potential out of the site. I look forward to exploring it in more depth. My team of teachers does use a google calendar to post assignments and comments for students and parents to view, but this site will prove useful.
- Marc Fleming
Using a wiki is a great idea! I like the possibilities of having my students be able to go to a webpage and upload whatever I need to get to them (directions, activities, etc.). It is much more reliable than email because not everyone can access email wherever they are. With a wiki, students can upload, download, and add to a discussion. They can also click on the links I put on the wiki and get right to where I need them to be.
I am not a fan of Wikipedia as a research tool, as anyone can edit the material. However, I often tell my students to use that as a reference or starting point. If they can find the information elsewhere (from a "reliable" source) all the better.
A website I like to use, and one I could possibly use on a wiki with my students, is: www.teenreads.com
I can use this to set a course for the students to choose an independent reading novel for an assignment.
-Maria Van Norman
I have heard of wikipedia, but I have never heard of a wiki before. I may not have a purpose to use it in my career, but for an on-line college class, the possibilities of collarborating and discussing topics are awesome. Thanks for introducing the concept to me. Mary Jo Lampart
I have never even heard of wiki before. I think that it is a very neat idea. I am not sure how it would work with life skills students but I think that other students in the high school would think that this is cool. Overall the whole concept is very interesting. Technology has come a long way in such a short time and it amazes me everyday where we are going.
What do you think of wikis? A wiki http://www.wiki.org/according to Wikipedia is:
"A wiki is software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborativewebsites and to power community websites."
I think wikis are cool!
Please feel free to tell about your experiences with wikis and add any links (To add a link, click on the World with the link icon and put your link text in the box that comes up.) you feel appropriate. As you add your comments (just click on Edit This Page at the top), I can click on recent changes and see who made them. You can also do this.
This is the first time I have been introduced to the concept of wikis. However, after exploring this software and doing a little research, I feel wikis have a lot to offer. Wikis provide a way for individuals to collaborate in a unique manner. People are able to share, add, and edit information related to a specific area of interest. In addition, I am amazed at how easy it is for anyone to use wikis. Wikis would definitely be a valuable resource when working on a group project. Students could share and edit information anywhere, anytime via the Web. Since wikis are composed of Web pages it is ideal for creating and using links when conducting research. Lastly, I found a very informative article entitled 7 Things you Should Know About Wikis. To access the article click on the following link: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf I found numbers six and seven particularly helping in explaining how wikis can be used in an educational setting. – Kristen Wilson
I had never heard of Wikis before. After doing some research on the web, I am excited about the thought of trying it. It really seems so easy. I made a website in one of the first graduate classes I took. I have always wanted to make another, but found it difficult to remember how to do it. A Wiki seems much more manageable. I also think it would be something teachers of older elementary, middle, and high school students could use. It would be a great way to create a final project! I found an article entitled, What is a Wiki, which I found to be very informative. The article can be found at http://www.sitepoint.com/article/what-is-a-wiki. - Meghan O'Donnell
I also never heard of Wikis. I think it would be interesting to try with maybe high school or college-age students. I like the idea of being able to collaborate with other people and add different ideas.
It would be a good project for high school kids to collaborate on a big project.
I don't know how well it would go over with a class of third-graders, but they do get some computer experience at their Computer class once a week, so maybe I'll give it a try!!! -Suzanne Deiter
The wiki experience is also new to me. I did a little research to get a better understanding of what a wiki was and how it is currently being used in education. From my research I learned that wikis are excellent for collaborative activities. They allow students to collaborate, add files, suggest links, and create documents. Wikis can be public or private by simply adding a password. I found a link with an article written by Daniel Nations. He explains that at their core, a wiki is a content management system. He offers links to additional wiki information, wiki hints and tips, popular wiki lists and related articles. If interested please check it out.- Jennifer Heck http://webtrends.about.com/od/wiki/p/wiki_nutshell.htm
Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of wikis, unitl I was introduced to them by one of our science teachers who had just attended a technology conference. As she was sharing with me some of the things that she learned from the conference, she began talking about wikis. At first, I had no idea as to what she was talking about, but I knew she was very excited about incorporating them into her classroom. To me, wikis sound like a great way for students to collaborate on classroom projects, without having to travel or find time to meet with all the members of the group. As I was researching information about wikis, I came across an interesting case study that took place in a co-educational secondary school in Gloucestershire on using wikis in schools. http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/discussion_papers/Wikis_in_Schools.pdf -Annette Shreve
Again like so many others, I had never heard of wikis before. After researching wikis, I feel that this would be a useful tool to use especially at the middle school and high school level. In my gifted support classes, we work on a lot of collaborative projects. This could come in handy especially since I only meet with the students twice a week. They would also be able to keep in contact with each other regarding their projects. I found a site that explains and outlines where wikis originated from and what they are used for. This site also promotes a book titled the Wiki Way by Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham (who the website quotes as the father of the wiki wiki concept). Wikis uniqueness lies in the fact the one can not only contribute to a web page, but also edit it. The following website gives a lot of good background information on wikis: http://www.wiki.org/
Marion Parry
Like many of you, I have also never heard of wikis before and was a little bit confused when I first signed onto this site. However, after doing some exploring and reading over some of the above links, I discovered what an amazing tool these wikis really are! As a high school learning support teacher, I feel wikis would be a great way to communicate with students to remind them of upcoming tests and homework assignments. Wikis would also be very helpful and beneficial to students when completing a group project. Wikis can easily facilitate communication between group members and also allow teachers to see how much progress is being made on the project. I was also amazed at how easy wikis are to use and navigate around. It is a tool that I feel can be utilized by anyone, despite their intelligence or computer skills. While doing some research on wikis, I came across a video on You Tube that gives a brief, fun explanation of wikis and an example of how they can be used. The video is called "Wikis in Plain English" and can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY Hope you enjoy it!!
- Kimberly Ziegler
I had heard of wikis before, but decided to talk to my teenage daughters and my husband about them as well as a few co-workers to find out what they knew. Most were not familiar with them. I understand that it is a great tool to use to share information, and the uses for it are endless. Using it in the classroom would be great for kids to use for group projects, by collaborating with others. I would like to use it for journal prompts, group projects, and writing assignments. I could see others reviewing a classmate's work and possibly editing their work or responding to a posted question. You could even hold a debate on a topic with students responding to a topic. I found the following site that may help others in uses of wikis in the classroom: http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml. I hope I can use this one day. I know our time is limited in computer class and I only have two computers in my classroom so it makes it difficult. P.S. - Barbara, I was happy to finally see a picture of you to know who I've been e-mailing with all of this time!!
-Mary Kitzmiller :)
Thanks, Mary.
I also have never heard or wiki. Let me tell you how long it took me to access this page and then do research. Thank goodness I teach First Grade! I'm sure, just like everything else, once you use it for a while, the easier it becomes. I found a lot of suggestions on how to use wiki, when to use it, how to use it, etc. while doing online research. I like the one Kimberly Ziegler suggested from youtube. One that I particularly found useful for me was http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/advice-for-students-use-a-wiki-for-better-note-taking.html I'm not sure that I would find wiki's to be too useful in First Grade. However, I think it would be awesome for Middle School and High School users.
Christina Apgar
I had heard of wikipedia but never realized that there were also wikispaces and the many classroom uses for them. I asked a number of my co-workers and they had never heard of a wikispace but knew of a wikipedia. I shared with them what I learned about wikispaces. I found the website http://classroomtech.pbwiki.com/WikiWiki and it defined wiki as "From a Hawaiian-language word for fast, "wiki" is a shortened form of "wiki wiki". A wiki is a website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change available content, typically without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring". This website was very helpful and informative in a variety of modalities. It gave examples of wikis that have been used by educators, it listed 10 ways wikis can be used in the classroom, it offered a link to a presentation about wikis, and links for additional resources and articles. I hope to be albe to incoporate using wikispaces in my classroom because I think the students would really enjoy it. The only issue that concerns me is that the students might type inappropriate comments or purposely alter someone elses work. Is there a way to avoid this.
Lottie Olson
Lottie, if you give students permission to edit the page, they can post anything. You can monitor the space very easily by selecting Recent Changes on the left. If you look in the date column, you can click on the day, time and you can see in green highlighted text what comment was posted or changed. Also, there is a way to have wikispaces notify you when a change is posted. You can delete any inappropriate text after you find out who posted it. If you have a strong acceptable use policy in place and talk to your students about this, that does make a difference. - Barb
Wiki Search Engine
I have never been on a WIKI before or experienced one so this is all new to me. I know my gifted students would go to town with this. They are learning about the life cycle of a trout and we are actually getting the eggs soon to watch the process. This would be an awesome tool for them to up date and tell about what is going on with the trout. This is really neat! My other students are too young. I might be able to update my Title I math students parents with a Wiki. They could check out what we are learning in class. The ideas seem endless depending on your outcome. Renee Barbetti:)
Like most of the class has already said, this is the first time I have heard of a Wiki.
It seems like it would be a great tool to use. I think it would be the best for group projects
or when you want to work with someone without having to meet in person. Just from using
it for the first time it seems like it would be easy to use, and if you would run into a problem
there are some great articles and resources you could go to for help. I am not sure that I will
use this with my fifth grade class, but I will keep it in mind for other projects. I was recently talking
to someone who wanted to start a webpage, I think I will mention a wiki to her. She might like this idea better!
Carmen Moore
I actually do have a little bit of experience with wikis. Our district has been working on revamping our curriculum and developed a wiki site where we would upload our unit curriculum guides so that any educators in the district could have access to them. It is nice to be able to see what other disciplines are doing so that information can be incorporated across curriculums and also provides an excellent resource for new teachers. I experienced this first hand as I took a new position this year. Have the curriculum up on the wiki site allowed me to have some guidance as I was planning out my coursework and basically provided me with everything that I needed to cover. I have not had experience using this in the classroom but do think that it could be beneficial for my students working on independent research projects. It would allow them a place to be able to give advice to each other or provide links to various online support sites. Becky Lutz
My experience with wikis has been limited to the use of the wikipedia. After reading some of the links listed above, I now even have a better of idea of what is transpiring with wikipedia. I am amazed with how many of my Google searches end with links to wikipedia. I have found the wikipedia helpful in checking out information with tourists spots for vacations. I have never tried to edit wikipedia, though. I decided to try and find any sites that were dedicated to third graders using a wiki. I found a site at http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/ThirdGradeWikis.aspx
The site was created by a library that allowed space for third graders to use the wiki. It invited them to actually "play" on the wiki. Because I didn't have a password, I could not get into the wiki to see what all was happening with it. I did wonder if multiple people could edit a wiki at the exact same moment or not. Wikis would be very beneficial to my own sons when working on group projects in high school and middle schools. Trying to organize schedules between four or five group members can prove to be very challenging at times. Using wikis would be very time efficient. I look forward to more wikis being used in online graduate programs, too!
Beth Stark
I don't have much experience with wikis. I do think my students could use wikis to post information or websites they feel would be interesting for the rest of the class. I also think wikis can be used for peer editing or for feedback when students are doing projects. I have always been cautious when I use information from wikis. One site I have used for some ideas is www.curriki.org . This website offers many lesson plans and ideas for educators. I have used some activities from this website in my classroom.
- Kevin Zurawski
I hate to continue to say the same thing as all the others, but to be honest, I have never even heard of a wiki before this class. Like everyone else has mentioned I have looked at the wikipedia site, but did not put much thought into how and what it was used for. I just knew it was not a reliable researching source because it can be edited by anyone. I think after learning a little bit more about this and exploring the different wiki sites it will definitely be a tool I would like to use in my classroom in the future. I think it would be a valuable tool to have students post responses. I am going to look into all of the uses and hopefully implement this in same way next year.
Ben Childs
This is my first time experiencing and participating on a wikispace. I have heard about it from a colleague who used it with their 5th grade students. They shared at a professional development day how wiki's can be used to allowed students to share and collaborate information in a safe place. I am sure that this is something that can be worked into my curriculum and I am hoping to learn more about it as we go. I am not sure my third graders would be able to easily navigate and explore the site however, with a little practice I think we could find many uses for this. As I was exploring also looking for sites for third graders or lower elementary students. I think the idea of using it for literature discussions is a great idea. Read a book as a class and have students post one question and answer a question seems like it would work. I am going to keep exploring.
~Hillary Hunter
I also had no experience with wikis. I did wonder if it had a connection to wikipedia. My first year teaching I thought wikipedia was great. While doing research papers I would be surprised about how much information my students can access from wikipedia on all the random topics they would choose for their papers. It also gave them the MLA citation which helped and saved me some time. Then someone told me that it wasn't a reliable source of information because anyone could post their thoughts. Now I do not allow my students to use it as a source for their papers. Do you think it is ok to have them use Wikipedia?
This is my first time working with Wiki. Other teachers in my department have used Wiki but I have not incorporated Wiki into my own classroom as of yet. I think it is a great way to connect a class discussion while encouraging technology use in the classroom. It is also nice to have students work on writing in the classroom as well. It took me a minute to figure out how to post. I'll need to spend some time navigating the site to figure out all the features available. I would like to incorporate this site into some lessons in the future. The links were helpful in deciding how to implement Wiki in the classroom.
My first and only experience with Wikis was last year during an online graduate course (Saint Joseph's University). We were required to create a page and use it throughout the course to post all of our assignments and communicate with group members on projects. I found it to be an interesting way to faciliate an online class. I teach kindergarten so I probably would not use it with them becasue they are just learning the basics of a computer and this would be too advanced for them. It would be a great for students in higher grades to post and communicate questions and thoughts on various topics that are given by the teacher. I really liked some of the links that were posted here on ideas how to use wikis in the classroom.
- Eva Janik
I used a wiki in an English class as an undergrad. If you Google my name you can still see some of the responses that I posted. A teacher that has the same position as me, at a different middle school in my district uses this same wiki site for his 8th grade students to post and complete their work. When I found his wiki online, I asked if he minded if I "stole" his idea and he was more than happy to help me out. Unfortunately, I didn't have the confidence to implement it this year, but I intend to utilize either wikispaces, moodle, or both to a great extent next year. From what I understand, the kids really love this format and it keeps everything nice and organized.
-Brendan Kerchner
I have used wikis in the past and think they can be useful tools when it comes to discussions and English and History lessons. The Honors history and English classes use these in their curriculum and they do a wonderful job. I'm not sure how much use I would have for it though. I like them and think there is a lot of potential when using them as webpages too. I actually prefer Wix right now, but started off with blogster. I had to create a webpage using wikispaces for a Wilkes class but honestly did not like it as much as Wix or Glogster.
-Cecelia Candelario
To Julie Cerasoli:
I saw you said your students had a problem accessing the information from home. I don't know how you would do this personally, but if you could talk to someone in IT at your school and have them place a link on your school's webpage, it might work for your students to access it at home as well. I know my students had access that way (if they decided to ever use it-- which they didn't).
--Kelly Herrmann
I have never used a Wiki site prior to this class. I've heard of it in my new teacher induction program because some of our middle schools were starting to implement it. They were also discussing using it to inform the community about events and updates in the district. I think this would be a great idea to use in the classroom-especially for homework help. In my Honors Geometry class, I assign a lot of proofs to do. Using this site, my students could colloborate on the best and most efficient way to solve them. This idea reminds me of our Discussions boards where we can each answer the questions on our own time. What I like better with this is we can see everyone's post all together. --LeighAnn Burke
I have yet to ever use a wiki page, but my school (Harrisburg School District) has links on our homepage for Google Applications. From what I know of wiki pages (which isn't much) they seem fairly similar. On Google Applications, I can upload documents or simple instructions and my students can simply see them or they can edit them as well. I did not get a chance to use the application with group projects because of time constraints and technological difficulties, however, it did prove to be a valuable way for students who were absent to get missed work if they had internet access. It would just mean keeping up with posting the information. Also, since it was set up by the school district, I had issues with some students not being registered in the application for whatever reason. Some I believe it was because they were new students, but others had been in my class all year long, so I was not sure how they did not have access. If anyone has used Google Applications and Wiki spaces, I was wondering if you had a preference for using either one. Does one have better tools and easier access? Google Apps has email and a calendar... do wiki spaces?
----Kelly Herrmann
The first time I used a wiki page was last summer through WIlkes -- a PLS class. I am a 4th grade teacher in the Easton Area School District and I haven't had the opportunity to use this format with the student yet. I sometimes find them confusing, but I also like how people can interact and post comments. I really don't think they would be appropriate for 4th graders, just because they are still learning the computer basics. However, I do like the ideas that were shared here.
--Tracy Bozik
I was first introduced to wikis last summer during an inservice. Our district has an intranet through Share Point. I am currently a co-op coordinator and business teacher at my high school. In the beginning of the year, I developed a wiki for my Business Law class. Every week I assigned a different student to add to the wiki the assignments that were covered during the week. That way, if a student was absent, they just needed to access the wiki to find out what they missed. The unfortunate part of creating a wiki on our school's intranet, is that you had to be at school to access, the student's could not access it from home. So this summer I am creating a wiki through wikispaces for my co-op students. It is very hard to keep in touch with your students over the summer, so I want them to be able to contact me to let me know if they have a job for next school year, etc. I will also be able to post any available jobs for those students seeking one. I think that this will work out for me and my students in regards to the co-op program. --Julie Cerasoli
I am sorry that I didn't make this clearer. This page was for the Spring semester Ed 585 class. If you notice the link to Summer08Wikis on the left, I would like you to post your comments on that page. Please feel free to read what my Spring class wrote because they have some great comments and resources you can check out when you have time.
I have copied and pasted comments from the May-June class to the Summer wiki page. Again, I am so sorry for the confusion. If you have any questions, please email me through the course website.
Thanks, Barb
Our faculty was introduced to wiki's at the end of last year during an in-service day and I was amazed at how well they can be used to work on projects together. That fact that everyone has access and the ability to edit information has great benefits. Since that workshop, I have only been invited to join a wiki twice and have not implemented them in my classroom. When I do implement wiki's in my classroom, I will create a wiki and have students search for information on Algebra and put that information on the wiki. I will also ask them to include links to Algebra web sites and tutorials.
I think wiki’s are cool as well! I was first introduced to them last summer while attending a National Endowment for the Humanities summer grant program at the F.D.R. Library. A fellow attendee put together a wiki site for all of us to utilize. She complied lesson plan ideas, resources, cool sites etc. What was really amazing was being able to talk to fellow attendees throughout the school year! We shared ideas and resources as we came across them. It has been great to share that level of collegiality with them.
Unfortunately I have not begun to implement them in my own classroom yet. We are in the dark ages as far as access to technology where I work. We are working to increase our funding. We will then have the use of more computers to walk my students though the usefulness of sites like these.
-Ellen Resnek
I'm with everyone else - never heard of a wiki and have never used one before. It was not hard to work in, and it seems like a giant blog. I visited some of the sites and found them interesting, but like every site out on the web, it takes a lot of time to search and find what you are looking for. I like keeping up with the technology, so I asked several of my classes if they heard of a wiki and if they've used it. I got a mixed reaction. I see it as a resouce for my classroom and a possible (safe) site for sharing ideas. Thank you for this interesting topic - I feel like I've got to get out more! ~Ruth Guenther
Ok, so I feel really silly. Like many in this class, I've had very little exposure to wiki's. To be honest, I thought "Wikipedia" was the only wiki and I had a negative view of wiki's before navigating through some of the links listed on this page. The reason for this negative stance, was I had heard a couple of kids in colleague's class had actually written themselves into a battle in the Civil War and cited it in a research paper.
I really like the PBWiki site and think it is a great resource to share ideas for a class in a safe fashion. I still am nowhere near comfortable with wiki's but, "Rome wasn't built in a day". I think there were some other math teachers in the group so I'll list this link:
MathWiki
Thanks for the opportunity to get immersed in the 21st century.
-Phil Matilla
Wikis are new to me, as well. I haven't heard of them before this unit. I did explore the informational website about Wikis and found it interesting to be able to provide students with focused websites that can pertain to a unit of study. I also like the collaboration component that it provides. I learned in my brain based learning class that collaboration is crucial for long term learning. I do think it would be challenging to teach students how to use wikispace. However, this could be taught with the computer curriculum and then used in content area classes. I have created and used webquests to keep learners focused on purposefully selected websites rather than have them surf the web for information. It is another way to keep students focused, safe, and on track. As for collaboration, we worked through the webquests in cooperative learning groups.
I am a visual learner, so looking at the following website helped me to understand wikis more clearly, as it provides examples.
http://writingwiki.org/default.aspx/WritingWiki/ForTeachersNewtoWikis.html
- Suzann Engle
I have never been on this site before, nor have I heard of it. I agree with Chris that it is a little hard to navigate, and being as I teach first and second graders, I think this may be too difficult for them. I do like the fact that it is a safe area for students to get classroom information from. I think this would be a great resource for older students.-Susan Donchez
I have never been on this site before and I have not heard of it either. I think having a safe place for students to go to to get directions for projects is a great idea. It is a little hard to navigate. But my students may be better at it then me.
-Chris Steigerwalt
This is my first experience with wikispace. I recently heard about wikis during a training with my district, but I had not visited one or added comments to one before. It seems I am not the only one as I look at the responses from my classmates on this page! The idea that information can be accessed by so many people at the same time from different locations is great. There are so many possibilities for using this kind of site with students, although I see it being more useful with older students. A wikispace would be a great resource for a classroom instead of a class website. It could be used to give homework, have a comment space for both students and parents, a place to share and highlight student work, a resource to answer homework or curriculum related questions, and so much more.
I'm trying to think of a way that my teaching partner and I can use this with our current fourth grade class. I will keep you updated. :) - Michele Kerns
This is my first time ever hearing about wikispace. I enjoy the idea of being able to post comments and assignments online for both students and parents to view. I think students could benefit from using such a communication tool. I also like that you can post other website links to give students easy access to finding "long named" web addresses. It does take a little while to completely understand how to use a blog site like this. I'm sure there are advanced ways to use it to get the full potential out of the site. I look forward to exploring it in more depth. My team of teachers does use a google calendar to post assignments and comments for students and parents to view, but this site will prove useful.
- Marc Fleming
Using a wiki is a great idea! I like the possibilities of having my students be able to go to a webpage and upload whatever I need to get to them (directions, activities, etc.). It is much more reliable than email because not everyone can access email wherever they are. With a wiki, students can upload, download, and add to a discussion. They can also click on the links I put on the wiki and get right to where I need them to be.
I am not a fan of Wikipedia as a research tool, as anyone can edit the material. However, I often tell my students to use that as a reference or starting point. If they can find the information elsewhere (from a "reliable" source) all the better.
A website I like to use, and one I could possibly use on a wiki with my students, is:
www.teenreads.com
I can use this to set a course for the students to choose an independent reading novel for an assignment.
-Maria Van Norman
I have heard of wikipedia, but I have never heard of a wiki before. I may not have a purpose to use it in my career, but for an on-line college class, the possibilities of collarborating and discussing topics are awesome. Thanks for introducing the concept to me. Mary Jo Lampart
I have never even heard of wiki before. I think that it is a very neat idea. I am not sure how it would work with life skills students but I think that other students in the high school would think that this is cool. Overall the whole concept is very interesting. Technology has come a long way in such a short time and it amazes me everyday where we are going.
What do you think of wikis? A wiki http://www.wiki.org/according to Wikipedia is:
"A wiki is software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites."
I think wikis are cool!
Please feel free to tell about your experiences with wikis and add any links (To add a link, click on the World with the link icon and put your link text in the box that comes up.) you feel appropriate. As you add your comments (just click on Edit This Page at the top), I can click on recent changes and see who made them. You can also do this.
This is the first time I have been introduced to the concept of wikis. However, after exploring this software and doing a little research, I feel wikis have a lot to offer. Wikis provide a way for individuals to collaborate in a unique manner. People are able to share, add, and edit information related to a specific area of interest. In addition, I am amazed at how easy it is for anyone to use wikis. Wikis would definitely be a valuable resource when working on a group project. Students could share and edit information anywhere, anytime via the Web. Since wikis are composed of Web pages it is ideal for creating and using links when conducting research. Lastly, I found a very informative article entitled 7 Things you Should Know About Wikis. To access the article click on the following link: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf I found numbers six and seven particularly helping in explaining how wikis can be used in an educational setting. – Kristen Wilson
I had never heard of Wikis before. After doing some research on the web, I am excited about the thought of trying it. It really seems so easy. I made a website in one of the first graduate classes I took. I have always wanted to make another, but found it difficult to remember how to do it. A Wiki seems much more manageable. I also think it would be something teachers of older elementary, middle, and high school students could use. It would be a great way to create a final project! I found an article entitled, What is a Wiki, which I found to be very informative. The article can be found at http://www.sitepoint.com/article/what-is-a-wiki. - Meghan O'Donnell
I also never heard of Wikis. I think it would be interesting to try with maybe high school or college-age students. I like the idea of being able to collaborate with other people and add different ideas.
It would be a good project for high school kids to collaborate on a big project.
I don't know how well it would go over with a class of third-graders, but they do get some computer experience at their Computer class once a week, so maybe I'll give it a try!!! -Suzanne Deiter
The wiki experience is also new to me. I did a little research to get a better understanding of what a wiki was and how it is currently being used in education. From my research I learned that wikis are excellent for collaborative activities. They allow students to collaborate, add files, suggest links, and create documents. Wikis can be public or private by simply adding a password. I found a link with an article written by Daniel Nations. He explains that at their core, a wiki is a content management system. He offers links to additional wiki information, wiki hints and tips, popular wiki lists and related articles. If interested please check it out.- Jennifer Heck
http://webtrends.about.com/od/wiki/p/wiki_nutshell.htm
Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of wikis, unitl I was introduced to them by one of our science teachers who had just attended a technology conference. As she was sharing with me some of the things that she learned from the conference, she began talking about wikis. At first, I had no idea as to what she was talking about, but I knew she was very excited about incorporating them into her classroom. To me, wikis sound like a great way for students to collaborate on classroom projects, without having to travel or find time to meet with all the members of the group. As I was researching information about wikis, I came across an interesting case study that took place in a co-educational secondary school in Gloucestershire on using wikis in schools. http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/discussion_papers/Wikis_in_Schools.pdf -Annette Shreve
Again like so many others, I had never heard of wikis before. After researching wikis, I feel that this would be a useful tool to use especially at the middle school and high school level. In my gifted support classes, we work on a lot of collaborative projects. This could come in handy especially since I only meet with the students twice a week. They would also be able to keep in contact with each other regarding their projects. I found a site that explains and outlines where wikis originated from and what they are used for. This site also promotes a book titled the Wiki Way by Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham (who the website quotes as the father of the wiki wiki concept). Wikis uniqueness lies in the fact the one can not only contribute to a web page, but also edit it. The following website gives a lot of good background information on wikis:
http://www.wiki.org/
Marion Parry
Like many of you, I have also never heard of wikis before and was a little bit confused when I first signed onto this site. However, after doing some exploring and reading over some of the above links, I discovered what an amazing tool these wikis really are! As a high school learning support teacher, I feel wikis would be a great way to communicate with students to remind them of upcoming tests and homework assignments. Wikis would also be very helpful and beneficial to students when completing a group project. Wikis can easily facilitate communication between group members and also allow teachers to see how much progress is being made on the project. I was also amazed at how easy wikis are to use and navigate around. It is a tool that I feel can be utilized by anyone, despite their intelligence or computer skills. While doing some research on wikis, I came across a video on You Tube that gives a brief, fun explanation of wikis and an example of how they can be used. The video is called "Wikis in Plain English" and can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY Hope you enjoy it!!
- Kimberly Ziegler
I had heard of wikis before, but decided to talk to my teenage daughters and my husband about them as well as a few co-workers to find out what they knew. Most were not familiar with them. I understand that it is a great tool to use to share information, and the uses for it are endless. Using it in the classroom would be great for kids to use for group projects, by collaborating with others. I would like to use it for journal prompts, group projects, and writing assignments. I could see others reviewing a classmate's work and possibly editing their work or responding to a posted question. You could even hold a debate on a topic with students responding to a topic. I found the following site that may help others in uses of wikis in the classroom:
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml. I hope I can use this one day. I know our time is limited in computer class and I only have two computers in my classroom so it makes it difficult. P.S. - Barbara, I was happy to finally see a picture of you to know who I've been e-mailing with all of this time!!
-Mary Kitzmiller :)
Thanks, Mary.
I also have never heard or wiki. Let me tell you how long it took me to access this page and then do research. Thank goodness I teach First Grade! I'm sure, just like everything else, once you use it for a while, the easier it becomes. I found a lot of suggestions on how to use wiki, when to use it, how to use it, etc. while doing online research. I like the one Kimberly Ziegler suggested from youtube. One that I particularly found useful for me was
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/advice-for-students-use-a-wiki-for-better-note-taking.html I'm not sure that I would find wiki's to be too useful in First Grade. However, I think it would be awesome for Middle School and High School users.
Christina Apgar
I had heard of wikipedia but never realized that there were also wikispaces and the many classroom uses for them. I asked a number of my co-workers and they had never heard of a wikispace but knew of a wikipedia. I shared with them what I learned about wikispaces. I found the website http://classroomtech.pbwiki.com/WikiWiki and it defined wiki as "From a Hawaiian-language word for fast, "wiki" is a shortened form of "wiki wiki". A wiki is a website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change available content, typically without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring". This website was very helpful and informative in a variety of modalities. It gave examples of wikis that have been used by educators, it listed 10 ways wikis can be used in the classroom, it offered a link to a presentation about wikis, and links for additional resources and articles. I hope to be albe to incoporate using wikispaces in my classroom because I think the students would really enjoy it. The only issue that concerns me is that the students might type inappropriate comments or purposely alter someone elses work. Is there a way to avoid this.
Lottie Olson
Lottie, if you give students permission to edit the page, they can post anything. You can monitor the space very easily by selecting Recent Changes on the left. If you look in the date column, you can click on the day, time and you can see in green highlighted text what comment was posted or changed. Also, there is a way to have wikispaces notify you when a change is posted. You can delete any inappropriate text after you find out who posted it. If you have a strong acceptable use policy in place and talk to your students about this, that does make a difference. - Barb
MediaWiki
PBWiki
Scribe Post Hall of Fame
Seed Wiki
Wiki Search Engine
I have never been on a WIKI before or experienced one so this is all new to me. I know my gifted students would go to town with this. They are learning about the life cycle of a trout and we are actually getting the eggs soon to watch the process. This would be an awesome tool for them to up date and tell about what is going on with the trout. This is really neat! My other students are too young. I might be able to update my Title I math students parents with a Wiki. They could check out what we are learning in class. The ideas seem endless depending on your outcome. Renee Barbetti:)
Like most of the class has already said, this is the first time I have heard of a Wiki.
It seems like it would be a great tool to use. I think it would be the best for group projects
or when you want to work with someone without having to meet in person. Just from using
it for the first time it seems like it would be easy to use, and if you would run into a problem
there are some great articles and resources you could go to for help. I am not sure that I will
use this with my fifth grade class, but I will keep it in mind for other projects. I was recently talking
to someone who wanted to start a webpage, I think I will mention a wiki to her. She might like this idea better!
Carmen Moore
I actually do have a little bit of experience with wikis. Our district has been working on revamping our curriculum and developed a wiki site where we would upload our unit curriculum guides so that any educators in the district could have access to them. It is nice to be able to see what other disciplines are doing so that information can be incorporated across curriculums and also provides an excellent resource for new teachers. I experienced this first hand as I took a new position this year. Have the curriculum up on the wiki site allowed me to have some guidance as I was planning out my coursework and basically provided me with everything that I needed to cover. I have not had experience using this in the classroom but do think that it could be beneficial for my students working on independent research projects. It would allow them a place to be able to give advice to each other or provide links to various online support sites. Becky Lutz
My experience with wikis has been limited to the use of the wikipedia. After reading some of the links listed above, I now even have a better of idea of what is transpiring with wikipedia. I am amazed with how many of my Google searches end with links to wikipedia. I have found the wikipedia helpful in checking out information with tourists spots for vacations. I have never tried to edit wikipedia, though. I decided to try and find any sites that were dedicated to third graders using a wiki. I found a site at http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/ThirdGradeWikis.aspx
The site was created by a library that allowed space for third graders to use the wiki. It invited them to actually "play" on the wiki. Because I didn't have a password, I could not get into the wiki to see what all was happening with it. I did wonder if multiple people could edit a wiki at the exact same moment or not. Wikis would be very beneficial to my own sons when working on group projects in high school and middle schools. Trying to organize schedules between four or five group members can prove to be very challenging at times. Using wikis would be very time efficient. I look forward to more wikis being used in online graduate programs, too!
Beth Stark
I don't have much experience with wikis. I do think my students could use wikis to post information or websites they feel would be interesting for the rest of the class. I also think wikis can be used for peer editing or for feedback when students are doing projects. I have always been cautious when I use information from wikis. One site I have used for some ideas is www.curriki.org . This website offers many lesson plans and ideas for educators. I have used some activities from this website in my classroom.
- Kevin Zurawski
I hate to continue to say the same thing as all the others, but to be honest, I have never even heard of a wiki before this class. Like everyone else has mentioned I have looked at the wikipedia site, but did not put much thought into how and what it was used for. I just knew it was not a reliable researching source because it can be edited by anyone. I think after learning a little bit more about this and exploring the different wiki sites it will definitely be a tool I would like to use in my classroom in the future. I think it would be a valuable tool to have students post responses. I am going to look into all of the uses and hopefully implement this in same way next year.
Ben Childs
This is my first time experiencing and participating on a wikispace. I have heard about it from a colleague who used it with their 5th grade students. They shared at a professional development day how wiki's can be used to allowed students to share and collaborate information in a safe place. I am sure that this is something that can be worked into my curriculum and I am hoping to learn more about it as we go. I am not sure my third graders would be able to easily navigate and explore the site however, with a little practice I think we could find many uses for this. As I was exploring also looking for sites for third graders or lower elementary students. I think the idea of using it for literature discussions is a great idea. Read a book as a class and have students post one question and answer a question seems like it would work. I am going to keep exploring.
~Hillary Hunter
I also had no experience with wikis. I did wonder if it had a connection to wikipedia. My first year teaching I thought wikipedia was great. While doing research papers I would be surprised about how much information my students can access from wikipedia on all the random topics they would choose for their papers. It also gave them the MLA citation which helped and saved me some time. Then someone told me that it wasn't a reliable source of information because anyone could post their thoughts. Now I do not allow my students to use it as a source for their papers. Do you think it is ok to have them use Wikipedia?
This is my first time working with Wiki. Other teachers in my department have used Wiki but I have not incorporated Wiki into my own classroom as of yet. I think it is a great way to connect a class discussion while encouraging technology use in the classroom. It is also nice to have students work on writing in the classroom as well. It took me a minute to figure out how to post. I'll need to spend some time navigating the site to figure out all the features available. I would like to incorporate this site into some lessons in the future. The links were helpful in deciding how to implement Wiki in the classroom.
My first and only experience with Wikis was last year during an online graduate course (Saint Joseph's University). We were required to create a page and use it throughout the course to post all of our assignments and communicate with group members on projects. I found it to be an interesting way to faciliate an online class. I teach kindergarten so I probably would not use it with them becasue they are just learning the basics of a computer and this would be too advanced for them. It would be a great for students in higher grades to post and communicate questions and thoughts on various topics that are given by the teacher. I really liked some of the links that were posted here on ideas how to use wikis in the classroom.
- Eva Janik
I used a wiki in an English class as an undergrad. If you Google my name you can still see some of the responses that I posted. A teacher that has the same position as me, at a different middle school in my district uses this same wiki site for his 8th grade students to post and complete their work. When I found his wiki online, I asked if he minded if I "stole" his idea and he was more than happy to help me out. Unfortunately, I didn't have the confidence to implement it this year, but I intend to utilize either wikispaces, moodle, or both to a great extent next year. From what I understand, the kids really love this format and it keeps everything nice and organized.
-Brendan Kerchner