Task Seven - It's a Wiki Wiki World

At Amy's suggestion, I downloaded Google Chrome. She says it may allow me to access my bookmarks from more than one computer. I uploaded my bookmarks and folders (yes!) to Chrome and then synched it to Google Docs, so now I can synch it to any other computer I'm using. Well, that'll come in handy! I did elect not to transmit my user data to Google.

Martha and Brian's Class Wiki - Some parts are heavily teacher-created, but others are heavily kid. That's a fun mix. It doesn't look from the History pages that kids have altered pages that they shouldn't. I also like that more than one teacher, at the very least, can add to the pages. Right now, I have the class web page saved on my computer in iWeb format. Becca can't do anything to it except through my computer, which generally means telling me to do it. If we had a class wiki, she could upload anything she wanted or make modifications that would never occur to me. That could lead to all kinds of cool developments, even if the kids only start out making modest contributions. Another issue for me would be consistency in layout. I like a web site that has my name on it to look like I care how it looks and works, so I suppose my new job would be patrolling for layout. I guess I spent too much time laying out high school newspapers years ago! I definitely think a wiki is the thing to do for the next China trip. I can post everything there and have links within the pages to generate more student additions as well.

Again, what is best for kids to post online? How to protect their identity in doing so? Some things should be seen by everyone, but some should only be available to the kid and the teacher. I like the design of the Thousand and One Flat World Tales site, where fellow writers elect the writing of each other to publication. I'd like a wiki with private pages for just us and one or more public pages for posting our best work. The page on internet safety and etiquette is a great idea, and I am likely to copy it liberally!

I liked Carl's class wiki about Venezuela. It was kind of like a mini-Wikiepedia, where each student contributes elements. In this case, they are assigned sections. I liked Let's Go West and the Woodward fifth graders' site for the same reason. Hmmm. I'd like to figure out a way to mark students' work within a wiki without just giving them the full correction. I'll have to explore that.

Jay Monson's wiki links to his blog, where he posts messages and assignments. Having both and linking them is a good idea.

I tried to create a voki after I saw Jennifer Dorman's on her site, but Flash crashed in mid-process as I was trying to add audio. Other than the Voki thing, her site doesn't seem to have much else going on.

Wiki Walk-Through was helpful. It has loads of ideas, some of which I will swipe wholesale: student study guides, student-generated examples or encounters within a topic, reflections on trips or events, class FAQ,

book reviews, family traditions, travel photos with a class icon, math solutions, number library for each number (like a class Number Gossip), daily weather page, data from science classes and experiments, wiki debates, collaborative wiki with kids in another part of the world, our travel brochures project online instead of in print, student links to helpful sites, and so forth!

The remainder of the example wikis or the ones I stumbled across were mostly teacher-generated, linear, or simple. I have the urge to create a class wiki and move everything from the class web site in iWeb to the wiki! I should probably talk to Becca first.

Mark Wagner's podcast about wikis was helpful, though I had to marshall all of my attention abilities to listen to the whole thing carefully. It was sometimes hard to hear, and the birds were raucous demons in one section.

Google Reader is working well. I like checking and getting a quick dose of information. It also makes it clear which sites are generating content!

What's next?