Janice’s Notes

Wikis look really exciting for helping my students collaborate on a variety of projects!  I first checked out Teachers First-Wiki Walk-Through and found so many ideas.  I will definitely be going back to that repeatedly as I use wikis with my students. 

I then explored 5 different wikis and found something helpful in each of them.  I did find the format differed and some were easier to navigate, but all of them peaked my interest in how I might use wikis.  In 1001 flat World Tales , high schoolers told a story as a means of saving themselves and their planet from an alien king who was threatening to destroy them.  Students used peer editing and revision as well as classmates judging whether or not a story was good enough to allow one to survive.  Now that is motivation!  Code Blue was written by 6th graders who used their knowlegde of the human body to open an online “medical clinic.”  Very clever, and full of great information!  Discovery Utopias explained about several attempts by various groups to come up with the “perfect society.”  I especially liked the “Discovery Blogging Rules” that they included as well.  Go West was a third grade wiki explaining what it was like to travel west on the Oregon Trail.  They used some great drawings, photos, and even math problems about the trail.  Primary Math had several sprimary schools from around the world showing different aspects of math they had learned.  They used videos, pictures, etc. to illustrate their points.  It looked like they had a lot of fun learning and sharing their knowledge with others in very creative ways.