March 24, 2008
E-Journal Entry #7
EDT598
Dear Journal,
Last week’s class on March 17 and the follow up homework for this week is all about Wiki Group Work, Wikis, and their use in the educational setting. Dianna, Vanessa, and I broke into our group and went through the Wiki Group Work class assignment. I found this assignment frustrating and hard to understand at first. My group kept steering me in the right direction and got me through the exercise. I thought the five questions used to create the different pages were actually hard to answer! I wish I moved along faster in the beginning so I had more time to answer the questions and respond to each others answers and responses more thoroughly. We did make a presentation of the work we completed at the end of class.
I was roaming the hallway at school this week and overheard Mr. Widmer, a Seventh Grade Math Teacher, talking to a student at his locker about logging on to the class Wiki. I’m not sure what information the student needed but afterward I visited Mr. Widmer’s classroom and asked him about his class Wiki. He explained that he uses two Wikis to manage different class subjects. One class Wiki is www.widmer.pbwiki.com, which is for his math class. Currently, Mr. Widmer has four math games websites on the Front Page including: The Factor Game, The Product Game, Krypto, and Tower Of Hanoi. I visited The Factor Game website which had the link right there to click on, clicked on instructions, and in about two minutes I was playing The Factor Game against the computer. The game was easy to understand, thought provoking, and a lot of fun!
The second Wiki Mr. Widmer uses is for a class service learning project which is found at www.widmer.wikispaces.com. The goal, as stated on the Front Page of the Wiki, is to come up with a project that reduces the amount of CO2 emissions from the MSAD #34 area. The students may use project ideas posted on the Wiki or make up their own project ideas. The Wiki has posted guidelines on how to rate each project proposal for a final selection of three projects to be accomplished by the class. After making final choices, the Wiki has a written outline for each student to copy to a word processing document on their own computer. This becomes their outline for steps, procedures, and student assignments designed to complete each chosen service learning project. This Wiki also includes a timeline for completion, scheduled in school times to work on their projects, and other pages for discussion, history, and notify me for all users when needed!
I think the the use of Wikis in the educational setting is an awesome tool. I am convinced I can make use of Wikis in my Band Room. For my program, I can envision a Band Room Wiki with several pages: one for Band Rehearsals, one for Band Lessons, one for Jazz Band, one for General Information (concerts, parades, etc.), one for Course Requirements ( Band Contract, practice requirements, concert attire, etc.), and maybe pages for Discussion/Contact Me! Like most of the Web 2.0 tools, I will need training and tech support and the time to put it all into place but Wikis could help transform how I organize and modernize my teaching! Well, that is all for now! Shawn.
