Wikis are tools where students and professionals are able to collaborate and edit online content. They are an interactive place for videos, lessons, images, web 2.0's, links, and more. Users can contribute and edit from any place they are able access the site online.
There are two types of wikis that I have seen most often. One for classroom collaboration and one for professional collaboration...
I found a classroom wiki that I found to be very interesting (http://jabernethy.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Pets). Mrs. Abernethy includes blogs for students to give reviews (movie vs. books), share summaries and commentary using Storybird, Animoto, Voki's and more! This 21st century classroom shows how students collaborate and connect in very creative ways. I can see the work that the students have put into their responses in more than just linear writing, which allows students to connect to their reading, writing, understanding and communicating more richly. I found their collaboration and sharing of information inspiring. The site is chock full of blogs, student pages, wikis, etc.
The professional development wiki, http://yukon-education-mathematics.wikispaces.com/Literacy, is a connection between literacy and numeracy, with a focus on balanced literacy across content areas.
Good sites to visit for wiki inclusion ideas...
50 Ways to Use Wikis in the Classroom
Using Wikis in the Math Classroom
Very nice post. I appreciate learning about numeracy. I bet that is both difficult and enjoyable to teach math+literacy. In looking at the "jabernathy" wiki, I found it interesting that the teacher is really using the wiki for more than collaboration or projects. She has a long list of helpful links available for students to use. In one way, it's rather helpful, but in another way, I'm not sure it belongs on a wiki. A class website could contain all of that information, but I wonder if a wiki shouldn't be exclusively for student work and collaboration. What does everyone else think?
ReplyDeleteHi Rob-
DeleteAs I have come across different wikis, I have also wondered about the difference between a using a wiki as a class website vs. a place for true learning and collaboration. I think a wiki should be a space for work and collaboration. BUT-I wonder if some wikis have turned into websites because they are SO easy to use and edit. You can easily add so many different elements. I know that the web application for creating class websites my district provides is so UN-user friendly that I hardly ever update my class website (GASP!). Some of the wikis I have seen used as websites are really able to bring a lot of elements in to make it a place kids and parents would want to come back to. I guess in the end, a wiki can be a space created to fit your own needs.
I feel like sometimes it's unfortunate we have to keep our content areas divided into one class for each. Literacy rolls into every area of our lives! I am constantly teaching about the relationships between words and numbers, and how they are not separate but always intertwined.
ReplyDelete...Which leads to the idea of intertwining wikis. I can see the benefit of both separating and including noncollabobarative work. It might be beneficial for students and families to go to just one site for all their class information. I can also see the benefit for keeping them separate so as not to overwhelm the user as well as not allowing the other static content to be manipulated. I think a better use of the wiki would be to have a class website with links to the student activities.
Thanks for sharing "using wikis in math". I have a fifth grader in prealgebra this year and I am trying to find more creative ways to work with her. I've thought about creating a wiki to use with her in the other subject areas and it would be great to add math!
ReplyDeleteI love the Make Belief Comix program site you shared! I have found that some students just do not respond well to being asked to write and this seems like a great way to get them to write without it being such a big issue! This, to me, is a great example of differentiating instruction to meet the needs of each learner. I would probably offer this as an option to the students as part of a writing project in which they can choose the traditional writing format or a comic. As long as the students are writing and creating and the goals of the curriculum and lesson are being met, I do not mind that some students choose this option. The students who would most likely choose this option are those who typically give me trouble when it comes to writing end up not doing the assignment, so, although they are not doing the same assignment, they are writing, which is what is important to me! Thanks for the great idea!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading the Yukon Education Wiki and how they are connecting literacy and math. I even forwarded it on to our K-5 Curriculum Coordinator to give her some ideas now that we are developing Units of Study for Common Core.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! I was hoping I wasn't stretching the topic too far by including math.
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