Final Exam

Overall, the best aspect of this course was that it increased many times my confidence in these new areas. I'm sure I will still pester Amy, Brandon, and Tami on a regular basis, but now I feel better able to explore many topics on my own, and I see the value and the mechanisms in making this so.

I found the big, basic elements like Google Reader, wikis, blogging, Delicious, and such the most inspiring and useful right off the bat. Many of the tools that I began to examine excitedly turned out to be less so, but many I will keep in mind. Task 8, exploring Delicious, was actually the most difficult to do, for with the Google Chrome bookmarklets, it was much more cumbersome than usual to work with it. I am now exploring some extensions and patches for Google Chrome. I wouldn't, though, change much of anything about the course. The diversity of topics and approaches fosters a richer way to think about the opportunities and challenges presented by the new and developing aspects of the web. Some lessons were more engaging than others or have proven to have more legs in the classroom, but everything was stimulating and exposed me to ideas I'd never considered before.

I'm using Google Reader every day and continue to tweak it. I have several ideas for wikis related to my work with China, Egypt, and game. Becca and I will definitely continue to develop wiki work with the kids, and we have some new ideas for the class web page, especially including many more links. When I have more time, I do want to catalog our classroom books with LibraryThing.

Then I ran across Muppets Meet the Internet. Beaker is awesome!

I appreciate the time and effort that's gone in to this training. Thanks, everyone!

Task 12 - Share What You Have Learned

I sent out an email to all of the elementary school teachers and received loads of response in return.

1. I discussed a class wiki with Becca. We've each done some work with a class wiki, but I'm thinking about migrating some of the material from our web site to a wiki. Some pages would be locked and only altered by me or her, and others would be open for students and parents to play. We both seem to like this idea, so now we need to set it up to play with this year and then implement more fully next school year.

2. I also met with Ken Sosebee. I started to show Google Reader to Ken, but his computer was blocked from gmail, so then we looked at Delicious. I actually found a site (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/20_chrome_tweaks) about Google Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome/?utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk-gen&utm_medium=ha) that interested me. He liked looking at other people's lists and all of the compilations, but he wasn't ready to upload his own bookmarks. I sent him a link (http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/) and the passcode for looking at the media on Discovery Education. When we have more time, I'd also like to discuss with Ken creating a wiki, wherein his students and mine could create posts and material about the subjects he and I share, Egypt and China.

Task 11 - Use Your Tools

I wanted to experiment more with wikis and kids, so I set up a class wiki site with the open-ended statement, "China is...". As an example and to set the tone for their work, I put in a picture of myself with some fourth graders in Bangxie village from my summer travels, and then I added a paragraph describing impressions of China from the experience and a link to a web site about Yunnan province with a map. The following week, I gave the kids the following assignment.

CHINA IS: Go to the Wikispaces site (davidandbeccasclass.wikispaces.com). Login using your personal password. Add something to the wiki.

• It can be a full paragraph that you write yourself.

• It can be a link, file, image, or widget. You need to add at least three sentences about why you chose it.

• You must put your name and the date above your addition.

I had created user names and passwords for each student. We had a dedicated class period for explaining the assignment and to demonstrate on the ActivBoard how to add material to the wiki. One student, having read our class work list over the weekend, had her assignment ready, so we added that and then modified a few things as examples. Giving clear directions proved more complex than it seemed, so I was glad Becca and I were both familiar with Wikispaces and wikis. The kids were excited. I gave them their individual passwords on slips of paper and admonished them that they needed to keep them secure. I acknowledged that I could track changes and which login had made them. If it looked like a particular kid, then it was their responsibility, even if someone else, also in the dog house, had used their login. They took it to heart. In addition to normal kid procrastination, we had issues with people editing at the same time, which led to one significant erasure by one student of the work of five others. Everyone took it in stride, and I gave the five an extension to go back and add their ideas again. The perp was very careful from then on, even calling me the next week to check before he saved anything new. Lessons learned by us all.

The next week, in fact, they went back and commented on one another's additions within the wiki page. They knew better what they were doing the second time around. It was tricky to check to be sure all thirty kids had posted a substantive comment and then to see if each of them had made five substantial comments about others' original comments. Actually, it's probably not trickier than checking kids' work in the past, but I have to go through their work differently.

I think I'd start with an even simpler wiki project next time, but the kids and I really got our feet wet, learned some skills, and created something substantial.