Wikispaces - So Far, So Good...So Far
I am just learning wikispaces this year in my computer lab. I successfully created wikispaces for each grade-level team, for each grade level student spaces, one for book reviews, and a few others for special area plans. Wikispaces was great about questions and entering twelve classes of username/passwords for me. With so many students, Excel came in handy for name + automatic number combination. I then copy/pasted the lists to send.
Project logistics-
With six classes in each grade level (I'll begin with 4th-5th) I will group students by their number in class to partner/group wikispaces. Also - I'm hoping it's great for distance collaborations too. Kind of like in here - there is something new each time I check in this site... well at least in my mind that is how they will see it. I have read accounts that students get upset over ownership - but that is part of teamwork in "regular" class too. More life lessons.
With daily contact with teachers at my school and online, we have many topics/standards-based projects in mind - it will all depend on what they are doing when we actually begin. I am planning for 4th graders to be ready for On the Trail of the First PeopleURL: http://eev.liu.edu/KK/na/index.htm with Karen.
Safety-
Wikispaces is safe because school account options can be set to members/invitaion only and I have requested that students share their username/password with parents only - this way parents who have reservations feel safer too.
I'm talking/emailing/blogging/newsletter(ing) home about it before we begin so I can field questions/concerns. I have had good discussions with parents which helps me add to my information I send.
Reading AUP's in CR20 has also been very helpful.
The blocking problem-
The past two months I have made numerous requests of our tech department to unblock sites I need/want such as wikispaces, blogger, podomatic..... Each request listed multiple ways I plan to use the site such as integrating technology and other curriculum, staff development, team collaboration/communicaton, and/or teacher/parent communication. So far, so good.
I've been teaching 20++ years, and in this is my 4th year in this position. I still want to ask:
What other organizational - or other - advice is there out there?
Project logistics-
With six classes in each grade level (I'll begin with 4th-5th) I will group students by their number in class to partner/group wikispaces. Also - I'm hoping it's great for distance collaborations too. Kind of like in here - there is something new each time I check in this site... well at least in my mind that is how they will see it. I have read accounts that students get upset over ownership - but that is part of teamwork in "regular" class too. More life lessons.
With daily contact with teachers at my school and online, we have many topics/standards-based projects in mind - it will all depend on what they are doing when we actually begin. I am planning for 4th graders to be ready for On the Trail of the First PeopleURL: http://eev.liu.edu/KK/na/index.htm with Karen.
Safety-
Wikispaces is safe because school account options can be set to members/invitaion only and I have requested that students share their username/password with parents only - this way parents who have reservations feel safer too.
I'm talking/emailing/blogging/newsletter(ing) home about it before we begin so I can field questions/concerns. I have had good discussions with parents which helps me add to my information I send.
Reading AUP's in CR20 has also been very helpful.
The blocking problem-
The past two months I have made numerous requests of our tech department to unblock sites I need/want such as wikispaces, blogger, podomatic..... Each request listed multiple ways I plan to use the site such as integrating technology and other curriculum, staff development, team collaboration/communicaton, and/or teacher/parent communication. So far, so good.
I've been teaching 20++ years, and in this is my 4th year in this position. I still want to ask:
What other organizational - or other - advice is there out there?
Tags: aup, collaborative, elementary, inter-classroom, socialstudies, wikis
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by tmalloff on
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Hi Andrew,
Great video. I'll have to look into Jing a bit more. I've tried to use scribd.com to embed some of my pdfs so the kids can scroll through the documents within the wiki environment, download, or share with others. It's another nice utility.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Marcinek on
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New post on wikis in the classroom at http://iteach20.blogspot.com/
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Permalink Reply by Mark Cruthers on
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You could use WikiEducator. Nellie Deutsch gave a WiZiQ public class just recently.
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Mark, is there a way to access this session via video archive?? Great resource! Thanks!
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Hi Andrew,
Here is WiZiQ's public class page which includes upcoming, live and recorded classes.
Sincerely,
Mark Cruthers
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Permalink Reply by Bushra Faisal on
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Hi,
I have created video tutorials on how to use wikis and also instructional Powerpoints about using Wikis. I would also explore ZohoWiki which lets you keep student data and much more in the same place. Its also much easier to use. You can find out about this on the Web site (http://www.technologymadeeasyforteachers.com) that I have created to help educators to use technology in their instruction.
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Permalink Reply by Marilyn Doore on
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I've been catching up on all the discussion here on Wikis. I've been using Gaggle.net for my students' emails in school. These are the only emails then that my 11-12yrs use during the year. Wikispaces with the free account for K-12 education has a great user generator that I can add all my students as members with their Gaggle emails.
I enjoy being able to use Wikispaces in class and use it along with Etherpad. I have not tried having the students use Twiddla yet in conjuction with our class Wiki... What other Web 2.0 tools does anyone use with Wikispaces?
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Hi Marilyn,
I've embedded youtube vids as instructional segments, or as part of an assignment. I've also used scribd.com to embed "live" documents or slideshows into my wiki rather than a link. And finally, I've experimented with dabbleboard.com, an interactive whiteboard that can be embedded as well. The tools are fun, but I try use them sparingly and effectively.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Fabbri on
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I too have had such cases. I volunteer at our local elementary school and realized that they currently block not just various sites, but also various ports. For example a website that may be at http://www.website.com may be fine, but one at http://www.website.com:8080/ may not. In our case a simple request resolved the problem and they opened up the access for a specific site or activity I needed to make available for the kids.
I notice you said you used Wikispaces in computer lab, I did a similar thing, but built a very simple web page and hosted it on a server I maintained. I then set this URL to be the homepage for the accounts of the class I was working with. In my case it was a Kindergarten class, so simply instructing them to launch the browser resulted in a web site being displayed that contained pre-filtered links the teacher and I discussed in advance. Not too high tech, but definitely saved tons of time over the course of the school year.
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Hi JoNelle,
That's neat that you were able to get wikispaces to input 12 classes of usernames and passwords! Did you sign up for an educational wiki plan in order for them to do this?
I've used wikispaces for my jr highschool students as stand alone modules, and as assignment/discussion hub. I wanted them to use their real first name and last initial so that there would be transparency and accountability in their posts.
Are you using wikis as a planning tool with your colleagues as well?
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Permalink Reply by JoNelle on
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I have the K-12 education account. It seems that there has been an update to allow you to input the classes by your Excel or comma delimited file.
I like for transparency of names within the classroom too. Helps accountability. Ours know each others numbers since it is the same in the their classroom. Numbers just makes it much easier for me to set up so many classes.
and Yes, we use it for our "Related- Arts" team for things like planning, book studies, and behavior logs of common students. Most recently we added pages and discussion to plan for a teammate's retirement celebration. We have a table to plan best meeting times (who can meet when...), ideas for food, decor, student involvement, gifts...
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Permalink Reply by Robyn Gioia on
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I've set up two wiki sites to use with my 5th grade reading classes. I have them post two questions from their novels. Each group is responsible for answering their group's questions.
What I have discovered:
They LOVE online book discussions.
They play around with the text colors and sizes and end up deleting each others work. (This prompted the no changes rule)
The editor isn't that sophisticated. Stick to the basics in editing.
Keep the number down for each page so they don't work over top each other. (I assign 4 to a page)
Set the rules early. Be specific. Give deadlines.
Since I assigned it to do at home, I ran into a couple of little problems. One person wanted to complain about another online. Another person posted inappropriate comments about another. The Tech teacher and I talked about internet etiquette and informed them that we have records of who is online and when. The problems stopped.
I have also ended up taking a grade for participation. That gave the wiki some clout. Now they take it very seriously. I've been able to post pictures that go along with the book, a map, news feeds about the upcoming movie (The Hobbit) and all kinds of interesting tidbits. I even dropped a Hobbit jigsaw puzzle and podcast of the Tolkien reading Chapter 5.
They have been discussing the story for a month now and are just now asking conversations that are fun but challenging.
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