Thing #8

I enjoyed reading the wikis in the Discovery Lesson. I was amazed that these were being used in so many ways. I have heard about a wiki through the school librarian. She uses one to set up a weekly library schedule. I was not aware that wikis were a tool for classroom learning and students were managing them for projects and homework. This gives a whole new meaning to "study groups." Two of the wikis I looked at, Primary Math and Room 15, were for younger grade students. The primary purpose of these seemed to be to publish some type of work/project. There were lots of photos in this wiki. The third wiki was from an eleventh grade class. I wanted to see how older students were managing the wiki. This one had more student generated topics in essay or note form. The teacher used this wiki for a variety of topics, a calendar, instructions for projects, class discussions and assignments. I believe that students could benefit from using a wiki. Vicki Davis stated in her blog, Wiki Wiki Teaching, that her students set up a study hall. After reading this post I have started thinking about how I can implement a wiki for staff developement sessions that I teach. I want to also use this as I plan with different teachers and grade levels throughout the school year. It is difficult to get a group of teachers together to plan when everyone has different schedules. With the wiki we can still share ideas and plan lessons together.