Thing #14

The wiki sure did open my eyes. I never knew what all a wiki could do. I certainly did not think it could be used as a learning tool. We always used it to sign up for a library time. I was pretty impressed with learning how a wiki is a tool that can be used in so many ways in the classroom . I also thought it was interesting reading how a blog and a wiki are two different things. A blog is just someone's thoughts or opinions that are posted and commented on. A wiki is a tool that is more open structured and allows others to change what someone else has written. It's always under revision. One wiki I found pretty impressive was Go West. It was created by a group of third graders who did a study of Westward expansion along the Oregon Trail. It was very well done. You could tell how much the students learned during this study project. I liked the way the wiki was set up that under each tab you could click and see more activities and learning that went on. This wiki was very detailed with lots of features. I would want my wiki done similar to this one. I think you could create a wiki similar to this one on any type of research project in any subject area. The kids would learn a great deal and would enjoy learning this way.

Another wiki that I liked was Primary Math. It was neat seeing how the teachers put all of the students math skills that were learned in a wiki for others to see. You could see a lot of learning going on, as well as, kids having a lot of fun learning this way. Any teacher could do a wiki like this. It is somewhat like a portfolio wiki. I would like to do a wiki like this in my classroom. It could be done with math, science, language arts...anything works. I tried to look at wikis that were geared toward the primary grades since that's what I teach. I also wanted to be able to take the ideas learned and be able to incorporate them into my own classroom next year.

The last wiki that I really liked exploring was Schools in the Past where students intereviewed their grandparents and parents to find out how schools have changed since they went to school. I think the comparison of school then and now is a great way to get the kids involved with this project. I like the way they had to interview their family about what school was like back then, and compare it with school now. This was done by first graders, which is the grade I teach, so I found this one to be interesting. This is another great example of how wikis can be added in the classroom easily. I just need to get better and more comfortable with computers so I can incorporate this type of learning in my classroom.