This video is excellent. Betsy, a student of my friend Vicki Davis in Georgia, asked students and teachers to describe wikis, blogs, and Web 2.0. Guess who know what the tools were, and gave the best explanations of their uses?

(via Milt Haynes)

Steve Hargadon emailed to let me know that planning is wrapping up for Classroom 2.0 LIVE, a 2-day workshop being held in San Francisco February 1 & 2. I’ll be presenting How to Be a Wiki Evangelist Within Your Organization on Friday (Feb. 1) afternoon. Steve is passionately committed to a vision of “engaged education” that is emerging [Read more]

Bob LeDrew writes about Kathy Cassidy’s first grade class in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where the students regularly blog and have a class wiki. Yes, that’s right, six and seven year olds are doing this, and the article Blogging 101 Motivates Students, in the Regina Leader-Post [Read more]

The April newsletter from Wikispaces highlights an excellent example of wiki collaboration between schools at great physical distance from each other – in this case Canada and the United Kingdom. The project focuses on how the countries handle various environmental issues, [Read more]

GMU Wiki Workshop: Nice to see that Rick Reo at George Mason University (one of the coauthors of Using Wiki in Education, the wiki-based book) is running a wiki workshop this week. Based on [Read more]

This is the seventh and final installment in a series [1 2 3 4 5 6] based on my recent conversation with Vicki Davis (blog), the visionary teacher behind the Westwood Schools Wikispace. Today, Vicki tells us what skills students learn from using the wiki. A huge thank you to Vicki for letting me feature her and the Westwood Wiki for this series!

• What skills do you see the wiki helping students develop or acquire? It helps them understand teamwork but also individual responsibility to the team. I also believe that as I prepare them for college that they can use wikis to help those infamous team projects work more smoothly. I believe wikis are the perfect way for teams to collaborate who are with each other all the time and will result in increased productivity.

  As a former businesswoman I have been trained to look at the “bottom line.” The bottom line is that in this world, these students are going to have to work with people around the world on projects. They are going to have to overcome language and distance barriers. In order to do that, they must understand collaboration and wikis are part of the solution to this. It is vital to their future in the global workplace as the managers and leaders I believe they are called to be. Students who understand how to use wikis will be better college students and more successful businesspeople, educators, doctors, etc. I want to help them succeed so I feel that such collaborative tools must be part of my classroom.

This is the sixth installment in a series [1 2 3 4 5] based on my recent conversation with Vicki Davis (blog), the visionary teacher behind the Westwood Schools Wikispace. Today, Vicki tells us about using a wiki from the teacher’s standpoint. Vicki, thanks again!

• How would you describe the wiki experience from a teacher’s standpoint?

  Like anything new, I struggled at first. But fear is a great motivator and I was afraid that I wasn’t covering everything I needed to in Computer Science. Their research and mine showed me that indeed these technologies are driving our society in ways that we do not as yet understand.

  I enjoy wikis and feel that for classroom teaching, that this new medium cannot be beat! I’d like to start seeing more wiki textbooks where I can add exercises and information as can other teachers. It could be a very helpful tool for teachers around the world and a great way to share best practices. As the student above state, it becomes more than the opinion of one person but a shared opinion. That is very valuable to educators.

  I grade these wikis by subscribing to the wiki over my bloglines account. It shows me simply who is working on what. One time, I was at home with a sick child and had my students working on wikis. I was commenting and posting as they worked and it was about like I was there!

This is the fifth installment in a series [1 2 3 4] based on my recent conversation with Vicki Davis (blog), the visionary teacher behind the Westwood Schools Wikispace. Today, Vicki tells us about students’ attitudes toward the wiki. Vicki, thanks again!

• How have students reacted to using it?
  I’d like to go back to one of my early posts on December 9^th that represents how my students felt about the wikis after first introduction:But my amazement came afterwards as I walked through the halls. Two girls attracted my attention with their squealing — I asked what was up with them — They were squealing about the English material going on the wikipage! It was going to help them on their project! They were so excited. They practically drove me crazy the rest of the day getting passes to come in and update the information for their exams and projects. Other teachers started coming to me and asking what was going on. They couldn’t believe the amount of material synthesized and summarized in one class period!

  My last period class heard from the others about the “do it yourself” project and then came the most astounding idea of all — the 10th grade study hall! They created a place to post projects and assignments and invited each other to their wikispace. Then, they created links to the websites that their fellow students had created to help them study/ review/ complete the project. They are used to copying notes for one another — but now they can collaborate on notes! The results are astonishing!

  This is what is most amazing — the buzz in the hall with students talking excitedly about King Lear, the Scarlett Letter, the poetry project, the History project, and what other information they need to post to help!

Like anything, some students “moan and groan” about wikis. They are also the same ones who moan about anything requiring effort. What I have seen, however, is that grades on tests have improved, participation in class discussion has improved, and knowledge of the subjects have improved. With wikis at the core of my classroom, it has become our “hub of knowledge transference” as students share and collaborate. I have been more than pleased.

As a recent blog “question of the week”, I had my students compare and contrast wikis and blogs. Here are a few excerpts about what they think:

• “Wikis are I think a lot more efficient than blogs.” 9^th grader
• “There is not a large difference between blogs and wikis. Blogs are more like an online journal and wikis are more for the classroom. Although wikis are more for the classroom we use both wikis and blogs a lot.” 9^th grader
• “Blogs are more opinionated than wikis, because wikis are a collaboration of facts by every individual student….Blogging is more popular and more people are aware of it. Wikispaces are a fairly new concept which leads to not many people knowing about them. A wikispace is more of a discussion than blogging, because blogging is one person’s opinion with other’s comments on it. Wikispaces are also aimed more toward the “classroom” setting rather than personal home setting.” 9^th grader

I also recorded our classroom discussion held on 1/18/06 about what students think of wikis. They are pretty honest.

This is the fourth installment in a series [1 2 3] based on my recent conversation with Vicki Davis (blog), the visionary teacher behind the Westwood Schools Wikispace. Today, Vicki tells us about assignments and formal assessment of wiki work. Vicki, thanks again!

• How many classes/students using it?

  I have two computer science classes and one ninth grade computer fundamentals class using it – that represents approximately 50 students. I am in the process of introducing the eighth grade keyboarding class to wikis, but have them spending more time blogging to hone their keyboarding skills. I plan to introduce wikis to my senior accounting and graphic design classes next year.

• Are wiki activities/assignments part of formal assessment/grading?

  Absolutely. Authentic assessment is a mainstay here at Westwood and we do not have formal “Final exams.” Our focus this year is to authentically assess and cumulatively test. We care about knowledge retention. Everything we do on wikispaces is for a grade. Remember, I tell them that these are group projects but that I grade individually. If I see pretty fair contribution of each they both benefit with a good grade. However, if I see that one person did all the work, I reserve the right to grade appropriately. This is how the history has been so helpful, as I can see which person made which edits.

• I have had several MAJOR assessments for Computer Science:

• #1 November 2005 – I wanted to create an authentic assessment as to their understanding of the use of wikipages to collaborate. For their quiz, I asked them to create a page with a partner of their choosing, that would help them study for an exam or complete a project in the next week. (See the links to these on http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Westwood+wikilinks+page.)I must say that I was impressed with the biology page. I also was quite pleased with their review material of the Scarlet Letter, King Lear, and their English Exam Review.
• #2 Semester 1 Assessment – I had two scenarios to which students were allowed to use their books. In each of these, they had to apply what they had learned about computing to either recommend a computer for a grandfather or a college student based upon certain criteria. You can review these projects at: EXAM – Scenario 1, EXAM – Scenario 2. It was open book and they said it was harder than any exam they had taken. I thought that it took more comprehension of the subject than other options.
• #3 Semester 2 Assessment – I am using the Wikis now as part of the computer science assessment for second semester. Section 1 of their portfolio requires that they use and evaluate a Web 2.0 website and create a wiki with their findings. This is an individual project, however, they are allowed to look at each other’s work. Each student must have a different website, so this just serves to improve each of their work and bring it up to a higher level.I believe wikis fit very well into authentic assessment and our curriculum director has been very pleased with the results in my classroom..

This is the third installment in a series [1 2] based on my recent conversation with Vicki Davis (blog), the visionary teacher behind the Westwood Schools Wikispace. This week, Vicki tells us about the design & structure of the Westwood wiki, and the ways students use it. Vicki, thanks again!

• Tell me about the structure of the wiki, and what kinds of activities are on it?

  The Wiki has a home page which is now a mashup with posts from my class blog, the school news blog, and the school calendar. It has become a one stop place for my students to see what is going on in computer science and at school. I also keep a listing of all past projects on the home page (scroll down) as well as a listing of current projects. I either give the assignments orally or via paper, however, I usually post the assignment on the wiki as well.Here is how this works for us:

  Ninth Grade- Computer Applications – They create study sheets and notes for each applications lesson. (PowerPoint, Access, Excel, Planning Skills, and a project on mashups have been worked on since Christmas.) By the day before the test, it is their responsibility to create a wiki on their assigned lesson along with their partner.Although it is a team responsibility, I make it clear that I give individual grades. If they do not contribute to their team wiki, they receive a zero. This keeps everyone motivated and working!

  Computer Science (10^th, 11^th) – We’ve used the wiki to collaborate on notes, discuss the ethics of computer crimes, review for the SAT (Math – 7^th period, Math -6^th period)and our original Web 2.0 project. I also have used the wiki extensively in their semester assessments.