Future Changes » Course Using Wiki

Meet Betsy. A Student’s take on wikis, blogs, and Web 2.0

Stewart Mader — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:13:22 +0000

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)

2-day Classroom 2.0 LIVE workshop in San Francisco is coming up fast!

Stewart Mader — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:51:17 +0000

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 from the use of Web 2.0 and collaborative software–blogs, wikis, social networks, etc. He believes that it is very important for educators to have hands-on experience with Web 2.0 technologies themselves in order to understand how personal learning and education change when involved in the read/write web.

For more information, check out the full description of the workshop, and the current agenda. You can attend either or both days – just make sure to sign up!

If you’d like a similar workshop in your area, please indicate it here.

First graders in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan are using a wiki

Stewart Mader — Sun, 27 May 2007 18:15:10 +0000

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 details how Cassidy has integrated social software into her curriculum: “In Kathy Cassidy’s classroom, Blogging 101 starts as soon as students arrive in the fall. The children learn basic computer skills at the same time as lessons cover writing and basic arithmetic. Within a few months, the Grade 1 and 2 students begin learning how to create and post their own blogs. “As soon as they start to learn their stuff can go on the web, they get very excited,” Cassidy said.”

This is an excellent and easily applicable example of how social software can be used to give students valuable core skills that they’ll need just as much as traditional core skills like reading, math, and writing. In fact, blogging can even improve writing skills: “Indeed, blogging acts as an important motivational tool for learning, said Dean Shareski, head of digital learning for the Prairie South School Board. Students are more motivated when they realize hundreds of people can view their work, Shareski said, noting interest in writing has increased since the blogs began. “It’s allowed them to connect with learning in a meaningful way, in a way textbooks can’t,” he said.”

What’s more, when I looked at the class wiki, they’re in the midst of an exercise called 1000 Names, which is one of the coolest uses of a wiki I’ve seen so far: “My grade ones and twos want to know what 1000 looks like. We are collecting 1000 names. Can you help us by adding your name to our wiki? Just click on edit at the top of the page, add the next number and your name at the bottom, then click save.” I added mine, number 1011, a link to Using Wiki in Education, and a note about this post so the students see that other bloggers are impressed with what they’re doing!

Wikispaces Site of the Month: intl. classroom collaboration

Stewart Mader — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:23:57 +0000

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, and the students’ own responsibility to the environment:

Our Space: The Flat Planet Wikispace is for an online collaborative project between students in two religious education classes in Catholic High Schools in Canada and the United Kingdom. The students were given the task of examining environmental issues affecting both Canada and the U.K. and to think about the ethical/moral responsibility of Roman Catholics with regard to the environment.

Our Community: The two teachers who set up this project are Simon O’Carroll (mroc) in Canada and Neil D’Aguiar (ndaguiar) in the United Kingdom. There are also a number of guest judges who will be helping out with the project. They are: Mrs. Vicki Davis (brightideaguru) of Camilla, Georgia whose award winning Flat Classroom Project was an inspiration, Sharon Peters (speters) of Montreal, Quebec who is also a leader in online collaboration, and Chris Betcher (betch) from Sydney, Australia who introduced me to Wikispaces and to Web 2.0 in general when he was on a teaching exchange at my school in Canada. We have one more judge joining the project, Chris Cosstick (ccosst1) from London, England, and he had never heard of a wiki until this project-so we’re spreading the word! There are 48 students working in collaboration on this project.

Our Experience with Wikispaces: The thing that we like about Wikispaces is the ease of use. It was fairly simple to figure out how to use the Wikispaces editing tools. Within a few minutes we had set up our Flat Planet Wikispaces site and were laying the groundwork for our students to begin their collaboration. I especially like the ability to easily embed things such as video, audio, and other types of media into the wiki.

Thanks to Adam Frey of Wikispaces for permission to reprint here!

Links: GMU Wiki Workshop, Wikipedia and democratic debate, “The Tiny, Mighty Link”

Stewart Mader — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:40:23 +0000

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 Rick’s contribution to the book, I’d say the GMU faculty who attend are in for a treat!

Who knows? Wikipedia, Teaching and Research: A very interesting article from Holger Szesnat of the Society of Biblical Literature. I think this quote sums up the perspective of the article: “The more popular the topic that I would want to write on, the more likely it is that I will have to negotiate and discuss the issue with a variety of people…One does not always want to discuss what feels like Remedial Hermeneutics 001 at Doonesbury’s Walden College. On the other hand, it is precisely such a democratic debate that is a positive communication challenge for academics.” One downside of the article is that its focus on Wikipedia might contribute to the skewed view of of the wiki that some people get after their first exposure to it is Wikipedia. On the other hand, the article takes a pragmatic, thoughtful approach that left me thinking very positively about its author, and his ability to juxtapose the issues surrounding the wiki. He also cited Using Wiki in Education in the bibliography!

The Tiny, Mighty Link: I just stumbled on this fun post from Alan Levine, a friend and fellow technology blogger. He examines the path one follows when surfing away and clicking on links that raise interest. Of course, it’s nice that his example in this post was my blog, and how I store & deliver presentations online using CarbonMade.

Vicki Davis & Westwood Wiki #7: What skills do students learn from using the wiki?

Stewart Mader — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 16:53:18 +0000

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.

Vicki Davis & Westwood Wiki #6: The teacher’s experience

Stewart Mader — Tue, 30 May 2006 14:57:32 +0000

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!

Vicki Davis & Westwood Wiki #5: Students’ attitudes toward wiki

Stewart Mader — Tue, 23 May 2006 13:20:16 +0000

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.

Vicki Davis & Westwood Wiki #4: Assignments & Assessment

Stewart Mader — Sat, 20 May 2006 01:03:10 +0000

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..

Vicki Davis & Westwood Wiki #3: Structure & Activities

Stewart Mader — Tue, 16 May 2006 16:31:13 +0000

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.