Some teachers have a difficult time allowing students to learn without the teacher being the distributor of information. I have worked with some, and at times, I have been that teacher. It has always been important to me that my students learn with a deep understanding of the content being taught. At times, I decided to make myself walk to the back of the room and let the students take over parts of the lessons. I wondered why I was doing all the work and why the students just received my work. At that exact moment, my teaching philosophy changed. My students were forced to change the way they had been learning and actually contribute to the learning of their peers. The very next day I deputized each student (two classes totaling around 50 students) and told them I was taking the next standard off. My little receivers became hunters and gatherers. The wiki was where they dropped their offerings off to the community for consumption by all. Richardson (2010) better explains my finding of people using a wiki as the wiki becoming “the poster child for the collaborative construction of knowledge and truth that the new, interactive Web facilitates” (p.57). As we learn more collaboratively online, the wiki becomes the destination of choice to not only learn from, but to share your learning with others.
My educational change in mindset occurred during my first year of teaching eighth grade students, just a few years back. It was just for one educational standard, but students worked in small groups and posted anything they could find (websites, podcasts, YouTube lessons…) on a specific math standard for two straight days. From there, each group presented from their wiki section on the knowledge they hunted for and gathered. It was great. I interjected here and there, but mostly, the students were in complete control of their learning and I was just receiving all of their learning while drinking my coffee! I am not sure why I did not continue this to further standards, but our class has inspired me to challenge myself to challenge my students in the upcoming 2015-2016 school year to make this a yearlong Georgia Studies project. I have the website, and now my students will have a blog and wiki to document all of their hard work.
Vicki Davis wrote a blog post very similar to what I attempted with my math students. It would have been nice to know about this before my attempt because she laid out several guidelines on how she wanted her students to work online with the Wiki Web 2.0 tool. I was just trying something out for fun and to see if it was even possible. It was possible, and accomplished, all without a plan. A few years later, smarter and with a better understanding of educational technology and content matter, there is no doubt that this is where I want my teaching to be and student learning to exist. Why do I feel confident about my transition into more student enhanced online learning models? There are now roadmaps:
The FHS WOLVES DEN Wiki – Since I currently teach English and Georgia Studies, this Wiki covering eleventh grade English and U.S. History is a nice resource to guide me in my wiki creation. The first section I noticed was the table of contents. It is just links to sections on the main page, but it let me immediately know what I could find on that main page. I also liked how on the left side the two classes were broken apart with specific sections for each class. It is very organized and easy to locate specific information in each class. I would have liked to see more up-to-date information, but I noticed that this wiki is no longer an active space since the educator is no longer in the classroom.
With a Wiki name Discovery Utopias, how could I not take a peek? As I initially looked around, I could not help but think about the unit our 8th grade English team teaches using The Giver, by Lois Lowry. The Utopia Template provides a unique way to look at our book while opening the minds of our students. Even though we just finished our unit a few weeks ago, I will be introducing this Utopia Template to our team right away. The links to real-life failed utopias will add a nice touch to help drive home the fact that this is not fiction, but failed realities. This wiki is student centered and project based and is full of potential. One improvement would be to eliminate the wine glasses from the top, just for starters.
The final Wiki I am reviewing which has helped me gather my thoughts as to how best use a Wiki in my own teachings is from kindergarten, titled the Kindergarten Counting Book. Although it lacks a positive viewing experience in many ways, where links are broken, pages are empty, and font sizes and colors use the fire-at-will approach, I ended up with one idea to use for my 8th grade students. On the main page there are pictures that help represent a number from one to one-hundred. As eighth graders with mobile technology and cameras, what a great way to help document their own blog and wiki posts through the use of a camera. Since I always look for one thing to take away from any learning experience, the Kindergarten Counting Book’s number photos has inspired me to inspire my students to photo capture their learning for their online learning postings.
My Wiki creation is going to be an ongoing learning experience. The way it is set up at the beginning of the year may look completely different at the end of the year, and that is okay. That should be expected. Like my students’ learning and growth, the wiki itself may grow into a content management solution that is completely student driven. It is up to me, and my students to make our Wiki what we want it to be, through planning, collaboration, and most importantly, excitement.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oak, California: Corwin.
My educational change in mindset occurred during my first year of teaching eighth grade students, just a few years back. It was just for one educational standard, but students worked in small groups and posted anything they could find (websites, podcasts, YouTube lessons…) on a specific math standard for two straight days. From there, each group presented from their wiki section on the knowledge they hunted for and gathered. It was great. I interjected here and there, but mostly, the students were in complete control of their learning and I was just receiving all of their learning while drinking my coffee! I am not sure why I did not continue this to further standards, but our class has inspired me to challenge myself to challenge my students in the upcoming 2015-2016 school year to make this a yearlong Georgia Studies project. I have the website, and now my students will have a blog and wiki to document all of their hard work.
Vicki Davis wrote a blog post very similar to what I attempted with my math students. It would have been nice to know about this before my attempt because she laid out several guidelines on how she wanted her students to work online with the Wiki Web 2.0 tool. I was just trying something out for fun and to see if it was even possible. It was possible, and accomplished, all without a plan. A few years later, smarter and with a better understanding of educational technology and content matter, there is no doubt that this is where I want my teaching to be and student learning to exist. Why do I feel confident about my transition into more student enhanced online learning models? There are now roadmaps:
The FHS WOLVES DEN Wiki – Since I currently teach English and Georgia Studies, this Wiki covering eleventh grade English and U.S. History is a nice resource to guide me in my wiki creation. The first section I noticed was the table of contents. It is just links to sections on the main page, but it let me immediately know what I could find on that main page. I also liked how on the left side the two classes were broken apart with specific sections for each class. It is very organized and easy to locate specific information in each class. I would have liked to see more up-to-date information, but I noticed that this wiki is no longer an active space since the educator is no longer in the classroom.
With a Wiki name Discovery Utopias, how could I not take a peek? As I initially looked around, I could not help but think about the unit our 8th grade English team teaches using The Giver, by Lois Lowry. The Utopia Template provides a unique way to look at our book while opening the minds of our students. Even though we just finished our unit a few weeks ago, I will be introducing this Utopia Template to our team right away. The links to real-life failed utopias will add a nice touch to help drive home the fact that this is not fiction, but failed realities. This wiki is student centered and project based and is full of potential. One improvement would be to eliminate the wine glasses from the top, just for starters.
The final Wiki I am reviewing which has helped me gather my thoughts as to how best use a Wiki in my own teachings is from kindergarten, titled the Kindergarten Counting Book. Although it lacks a positive viewing experience in many ways, where links are broken, pages are empty, and font sizes and colors use the fire-at-will approach, I ended up with one idea to use for my 8th grade students. On the main page there are pictures that help represent a number from one to one-hundred. As eighth graders with mobile technology and cameras, what a great way to help document their own blog and wiki posts through the use of a camera. Since I always look for one thing to take away from any learning experience, the Kindergarten Counting Book’s number photos has inspired me to inspire my students to photo capture their learning for their online learning postings.
My Wiki creation is going to be an ongoing learning experience. The way it is set up at the beginning of the year may look completely different at the end of the year, and that is okay. That should be expected. Like my students’ learning and growth, the wiki itself may grow into a content management solution that is completely student driven. It is up to me, and my students to make our Wiki what we want it to be, through planning, collaboration, and most importantly, excitement.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oak, California: Corwin.