Wikis
Reich, Murnane, & Willett (2012) mention that students use wikis to publish homework assignments, maintain portfolios, peer review writing, post artwork, download music for rehearsals, and review drills for physical education (p. 10). This shows that wikis can be used for a variety of things within the classroom. This article, combined with the wikis I explored in Module 4, gave me several great ideas about how I might implement a wiki in my classroom, and how to make sure it continues to be a place that is helpful for my students.
The first wiki I explored was Math 12v Outcome Portfolio by Mr. Lee. The wiki was organized by each of their grade 12 math standards. Each standard linked to a page that the students were responsible for adding content to. Each standard page listed the topic, creator, links, and a comments section. The comments section is great because it gives the creator of the page feedback and advice for improvement. Pages included definitions and examples of how to solve problems. The learning outcome and purpose of this wiki was for students to review concepts and to create a yearlong review guide. This wiki was very thorough, but perhaps students could have added videos of them actually working on problems or linked to a document with more problems and solutions. In all, this wiki is great because it can be used by not only the students who created it, but by anyone else who needs additional resources or help with these math topics.
The next wiki I explored was Westwood’s Schools Computer Science. The wiki is organized into four main sections: Current courses, Student Portfolios, Past Courses and About Westwood Schools. This wiki seems like it is used more as a way for teacher Vicki Davis to organize student work and projects and not so much as a useful tool for people outside of the school. The contents of this blog are mainly student projects and tasks. Students use tools such as Quizlet to create flash cards, YouTube videos, and images. I like how Davis archives projects from previous years for her current students to pull examples from. I did not notice a section for commenting or the use of the discussion tool on this wiki. Allowing students to give feedback and constructive criticism to each other’s pages could improve this wiki by allowing students to collaborate more. Overall, this wiki seems like a good way for Davis to organize her course content into one place for her students. Besides the use for her class however, this wiki doesn’t seem like it benefits anyone else. This wiki doesn’t seem very “collaborative”.
The last wiki I explored was the Great Debate 2008. This wiki is an extensive, collaborative wiki dedicated to researching and compiling political issues surrounding the 2008 presidential election. The learning outcomes were to inform students about the current political issues at that time and to establish collaboration with schools around the country. This is a “protected” wiki, so only approved people can edit and add to the content. On the right hand side of the page is a navigation menu with links to the major political topics. When you click on a link it takes you to a page with an overview of what the topic means and each political party’s views. For example, one topic covered is immigration. Students use tools such as YouTube videos, pictures, links to sources, and the discussion tool. This wiki is truly a great example of how a wiki can be used in education. I do not feel that anything is missing or that I could add anything to improve it. All of the work seems to be well researched and all of it is referenced and cited.
After reviewing the wiki pages above, I could definitely see myself implementing a wiki in my 8th grade social studies classroom. I really like how Mr. Lee set up his Math 12v Outcomes Portfolio and could see this working best in my classroom. This would be great to use at the conclusion of each unit as a way for students to summarize what they have been learning. I could assign each group a topic on which they have to compile information. They could add additional information, videos, and helpful bits of information for studying, remembering dates and names, etc. Once groups have finished creating their pages, students could spend the next few days reviewing the pages of other groups, adding comments, additional information or methods, and correcting each other’s work if needed. This could be done all year after each unit and then used at the end of the year in preparation for the Milestones test.
Productivity Tools
One of the first productivity tools I looked at was Zoho docs. Since I am already familiar with Google docs, I chose to explore Zoho docs to see if I would like it as much as Google docs. Zoho docs is very user friendly and works in much the same way as Google docs does. Sharing and collaborating are two of the features that I would use Zoho docs for. File sharing is easy, but I am uncertain that this is a program that I would use in place of Google docs. According to Allan Carrington's Pedagogy Wheel, this tool would fit into the remember/understand sections.
The second tool I chose to investigate further is Soundcloud. I discovered Soundcloud through my brother-in-law, who works for a radio station. Soundcloud allows you to publicly or privately share sounds are recordings on blogs, websites, and other platforms. For ITEC 7445, I created a webquest on The Great Depression. I utilized Soundcloud while creating the webquest to record the directions for the webquest. This will allow my students with a read-aloud accommodation to have the directions and information read to them, and they can replay it when necessary. According to the Pedagogy Wheel, this tool would fit into the create section.
Finally, I explored Symbaloo. I was introduced to Symbaloo last year by our county’s technology coach, and I love it. Middle school students are often extremely disorganized. By utilizing Symbaloo, I have shown my students how to organize all of the websites they use on a regular basis onto one screen. I also use Symbaloo, and I have noticed that more of my students use this tool after they notice that I also utilize it daily. Symbaloo might fit best in to the remember section of Carrington’s Pedagogy Wheel.
References:
Great Debate 2008. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016 from the Great Debate 2008 Wiki:
http://greatdebate2008.wikispaces.com
Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016 from the Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio Wiki: http://acrospire.pbworks.com/w/page/1342627/FrontPage
Reich, J., Murnane, R., & Willett, J. (2012). The state of wiki usage in U.S. K-12 schools: Leveraging web 2.0 data warehouses to assess quality and equity in online learning environments. Educational Researcher, 41(1), pp. 7-15.
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Westwood. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016 from the Westwood School Wiki: http://westwood.wikispaces.com
Reich, Murnane, & Willett (2012) mention that students use wikis to publish homework assignments, maintain portfolios, peer review writing, post artwork, download music for rehearsals, and review drills for physical education (p. 10). This shows that wikis can be used for a variety of things within the classroom. This article, combined with the wikis I explored in Module 4, gave me several great ideas about how I might implement a wiki in my classroom, and how to make sure it continues to be a place that is helpful for my students.
The first wiki I explored was Math 12v Outcome Portfolio by Mr. Lee. The wiki was organized by each of their grade 12 math standards. Each standard linked to a page that the students were responsible for adding content to. Each standard page listed the topic, creator, links, and a comments section. The comments section is great because it gives the creator of the page feedback and advice for improvement. Pages included definitions and examples of how to solve problems. The learning outcome and purpose of this wiki was for students to review concepts and to create a yearlong review guide. This wiki was very thorough, but perhaps students could have added videos of them actually working on problems or linked to a document with more problems and solutions. In all, this wiki is great because it can be used by not only the students who created it, but by anyone else who needs additional resources or help with these math topics.
The next wiki I explored was Westwood’s Schools Computer Science. The wiki is organized into four main sections: Current courses, Student Portfolios, Past Courses and About Westwood Schools. This wiki seems like it is used more as a way for teacher Vicki Davis to organize student work and projects and not so much as a useful tool for people outside of the school. The contents of this blog are mainly student projects and tasks. Students use tools such as Quizlet to create flash cards, YouTube videos, and images. I like how Davis archives projects from previous years for her current students to pull examples from. I did not notice a section for commenting or the use of the discussion tool on this wiki. Allowing students to give feedback and constructive criticism to each other’s pages could improve this wiki by allowing students to collaborate more. Overall, this wiki seems like a good way for Davis to organize her course content into one place for her students. Besides the use for her class however, this wiki doesn’t seem like it benefits anyone else. This wiki doesn’t seem very “collaborative”.
The last wiki I explored was the Great Debate 2008. This wiki is an extensive, collaborative wiki dedicated to researching and compiling political issues surrounding the 2008 presidential election. The learning outcomes were to inform students about the current political issues at that time and to establish collaboration with schools around the country. This is a “protected” wiki, so only approved people can edit and add to the content. On the right hand side of the page is a navigation menu with links to the major political topics. When you click on a link it takes you to a page with an overview of what the topic means and each political party’s views. For example, one topic covered is immigration. Students use tools such as YouTube videos, pictures, links to sources, and the discussion tool. This wiki is truly a great example of how a wiki can be used in education. I do not feel that anything is missing or that I could add anything to improve it. All of the work seems to be well researched and all of it is referenced and cited.
After reviewing the wiki pages above, I could definitely see myself implementing a wiki in my 8th grade social studies classroom. I really like how Mr. Lee set up his Math 12v Outcomes Portfolio and could see this working best in my classroom. This would be great to use at the conclusion of each unit as a way for students to summarize what they have been learning. I could assign each group a topic on which they have to compile information. They could add additional information, videos, and helpful bits of information for studying, remembering dates and names, etc. Once groups have finished creating their pages, students could spend the next few days reviewing the pages of other groups, adding comments, additional information or methods, and correcting each other’s work if needed. This could be done all year after each unit and then used at the end of the year in preparation for the Milestones test.
Productivity Tools
One of the first productivity tools I looked at was Zoho docs. Since I am already familiar with Google docs, I chose to explore Zoho docs to see if I would like it as much as Google docs. Zoho docs is very user friendly and works in much the same way as Google docs does. Sharing and collaborating are two of the features that I would use Zoho docs for. File sharing is easy, but I am uncertain that this is a program that I would use in place of Google docs. According to Allan Carrington's Pedagogy Wheel, this tool would fit into the remember/understand sections.
The second tool I chose to investigate further is Soundcloud. I discovered Soundcloud through my brother-in-law, who works for a radio station. Soundcloud allows you to publicly or privately share sounds are recordings on blogs, websites, and other platforms. For ITEC 7445, I created a webquest on The Great Depression. I utilized Soundcloud while creating the webquest to record the directions for the webquest. This will allow my students with a read-aloud accommodation to have the directions and information read to them, and they can replay it when necessary. According to the Pedagogy Wheel, this tool would fit into the create section.
Finally, I explored Symbaloo. I was introduced to Symbaloo last year by our county’s technology coach, and I love it. Middle school students are often extremely disorganized. By utilizing Symbaloo, I have shown my students how to organize all of the websites they use on a regular basis onto one screen. I also use Symbaloo, and I have noticed that more of my students use this tool after they notice that I also utilize it daily. Symbaloo might fit best in to the remember section of Carrington’s Pedagogy Wheel.
References:
Great Debate 2008. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016 from the Great Debate 2008 Wiki:
http://greatdebate2008.wikispaces.com
Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016 from the Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio Wiki: http://acrospire.pbworks.com/w/page/1342627/FrontPage
Reich, J., Murnane, R., & Willett, J. (2012). The state of wiki usage in U.S. K-12 schools: Leveraging web 2.0 data warehouses to assess quality and equity in online learning environments. Educational Researcher, 41(1), pp. 7-15.
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Westwood. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016 from the Westwood School Wiki: http://westwood.wikispaces.com