Class Collaboration

We are trying to pair up classrooms through their blogs as a means of collaboration, learning and having fun. Please post your thoughts and if you or anyone you know may be interested. Please leave me a way to contact you.

Reflection 2 - Lesson 8

Wow, both wiki's and the delicious tool are useful. Personally, I like using the wiki. I think it has so many, many applications. As I said in my previous post, I use it to showcase our students work. It is also an educational tool. It helps them read, re-read and edit for information. I feel it is also a tool for differentiated instruction. Not all students learn the same. We have to think of different ways to be able to make them successful in learning. I think Wiki's are a great avenue for some of these students. It amazes me to see how eager our students are to edit their own work and those of their classmates. They want to be the first one to find a mistake. I think they take more pride in their work knowing it will be showcased for the world to see.
I also like delicious. Where ever you go, you can bring up certain websites, podcasts etc. It's an easy way to share these things with a group of people. It's a great tool, but......knowing how much of an impact the Village Wiki has had on student learning....I'll have to go with WIKI's!

Wiki's - Lesson 6

I love working with Wiki's. I have created one for the Village Elementary and have had much success. The kids are so excited to see their work and actually try to make their work better by re-reading and editing and looking at their classmates work for mistakes. I like the idea that it is a collaborative effort by all. As I've shown other teachers and students the work we have put on, they are coming up with ideas on how they can contribute and how it will help their students for the following year. It's not just a one time deal, it's on going. Students looking at the Village Wiki next year for information can still edit what is on there. I'm sure not every shred of information has been collected on a specific topic. One of our "requirements" is having the students site their sources. We are not getting into MLA, or Chicago type of site sourcing, but we are trying to get them into the habit of giving credit to the website, person, author, book etc. that they are getting the information from. This also helps them to take a look at the source and see if it is really a reliable one or not. We have a variety of different software program entries which really helps the teachers (ones that aren't "techy") to really explore different ways to help their students present the information that is being collected. I like to think of this as Differentiated Instruction.

Wiki's can be used in so many different ways. Like blogs everyone can contribute and comments can be made. I like the fact that students can use this as another way to showcase their work. Like Terri said so often they do the research, it's graded, they bring it home and maybe it's put on the refrigerator for a while. This way it stays, it serves a purpose (other students can use it) and it can be shared with others (grandparents, aunts, uncles etc). I'm really excited about The Village Wiki and so are the students and teachers that have contributed!