I almost wanted to be an elementary student again after reading the Room 15 Wiki! If Mr. Lindsay is even half as fun and creative as his wiki, life in room 15 would be a blast. This is the first of three wikis I will write about, and I felt it set a standard for excellence. It is attractive, with colorful graphics to accompany the text, and clearly organized. It had categories for classroom window; curriculum; and other stuff, including resources for educators. Mr. L. listed ways parents could be involved. He compared the 5th and 6th grade learning outcomes for Social Studies. He used tags and bookmarks as tools. AND he had lots of links to things he is interested in, which made for some intriguing reading. I wouldn’t change a thing!
The second wiki Go West was also fun. It was a 3rd grade project on westward expansion. along the Oregon Trail. There were over 20 topics to choose from the menu, such as clothing; hardships; timeline; daily chores; food; explorers. This project was very much owned by the students. They took digital photos, drew pictures, wrote narrative, and researched a variety of sources. This was noted by the teachers in an excellent reflective piece. I loved that the articles were written in the children’s own words. A note of caution – don’t read the description of scurvy just after eating!
The teachers noted how excited the students were working on this project. They became familiar with so many technology tools, including digital cameras, scanners, Inspiration, Timeliner, Bubbleshare, information sites – as well as learning about acceptabvle use, citing sources, and URLs. Great wiki, great teaching, great empowerment of young minds. You go west!
The third wiki I looked at was Schools in the Past, a project of a 1st grade class. The students interviewed parents and grandparents to learn about how things were different in their time at school. The comments were dvided into Playground; Library; Number of Students in Class; and What was Studied.
It was simply a written list of the comments. There was one student drawing on the page, so very little visual appeal.
If I comapred this to the other two wikis I looked at, it would not fare well. There was no ownership here -no names of the children or who they interviewed; no mention of the ages of the interviewees or years they referred to, nor what part of the US – or foreign country - their school was located. There was no attempt to relate this activity to learning outcomes. So it seemed to be floating in the universe as a random isolated piece. I would have included the information mentioned above, and definitely added drawings from the children and/or some photos of the interviewing pairs. also, follow up discussion with the students like, what do we learn from this? What would you have liked /not liked about going to school when your parents/grandparents went? I would have liked a reflective piece as in Go West, and recommended reading about schools of the past, whether 30, 50 or 100 years ago – or more.
OK, and now for my reflective piece. It’s not easy to get into another teacher’s head and always know what he/she should have done. But each of us, before we commit our students work and our effort to a wiki, should have some standard of what we should include. I don’t think the missing items would have required much additional work -but they would have made this a more interesting and meaningful project for the children and their families.
Is there a wiki in my future. I hope so. i am a Media Specialist, and I can see tremendous potential for book reviews, student writing projects, “you be the judge” scenarios from situations found in books and on web sites relating to their other curricular pieces. Take a deep breath, start small – and make sure you protect yourself against scurvy!!
3 responses so far ↓
1
David Lindsay
// Oct 19, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Hi there! I’m the infamous Mr. Lindsay whose wiki you reviewed. Thanks for the kind words. I started implementing this kind of technology a half dozen years or so ago in the form of a web forum for our classroom. We’ve been very fortunate in our district to have a district office that is really supportive in bringing in new technologies. Jim Klein, our tech director, put together the blogs and wikis our kids use after I started using a PBWiki in my classroom a few years ago.
I would definitely recommend that you set up a wiki for your library/media center. The collaborative aspect is what really allows it to take off. It is very difficult for one person to sustain an active web community while working another (very demanding) job. With a wiki, you can get parents and students to take some of that responsibility off your shoulders. Ideally, it gets to the point where you’re really just moderating and screening content.
Thanks again, good luck with your wiki, and feel free to ask me any questions you might have about using blogs and wikis in a student-centered environment.
Sincerely,
David Lindsay
http://community.saugususd.org/dlindsay/page/
2
Patty Nathan
// Oct 19, 2008 at 6:50 pm
You chose a variety of wikis to compare. What I like the most is that the variety shows younger students as well as older students are capable of participating in a wiki at different levels. I love the way you are thinking about how you can use a wiki in the media center.
3
Shelley Paul
// Oct 21, 2008 at 8:59 am
How cool that David Lindsay tracked back to your post!
What I most appreciate from your wiki observations is the reflection. Your “teacher eye” was easily able to see how the learning value of the “Schools” project could have been easily “amped up.” And your note about the need for planning and standards — a sense of the desired learning outcomes — is right on track! Your post really reflect what I most hope a participant will do when completing this “thing…” If you do leap into a wiki project, it will most certainly drive from good forethought. Thanks.
P.S. My colleague was the “Go West” project coordinator — I sent her your post. So often we don’t know how our good work makes an impact. I was excited to pass this along.
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