So I tried to add a picture of a DJ at the turntable, just to drive home the illustrative nature of the title. But for some reason, I keep getting a password prompt for the proxy server and my computer freezes every time I try putting my password in. Oh well – insert cool imaginary picture here –
Now, on to the wiki. I am thinking about ways to use wikis with my class, but I don’t fully understand what they can do. I really like the idea (modeled in our course) of having students take notes in the wiki, which essentially leads to a great collaborative collection of notes. But I want to go bigger and better than that, as well. I usually do a “current events” project with my classes, and I would like to figure out how to adapt that to a wiki. So far, I’m thinking of posting a news topic that our class can follow over the course of the week. As students find articles, news reports, pictures, etc., they can post the link in the wiki and then comment on it. Students could then collectively build an analysis of the news topic, with information from varied sources and with a variety of meaningful comments/discussions.
I think this is all a great plan, but I have no idea where to start or how to implement this, or how to get my students on board. Any thoughts?
February 13, 2009 at 4:31 am
When you go to upload an image, use the browser uploader rather than the default (Flash) uploader. Check out this video for an example: http://blip.tv/file/1757009/
February 13, 2009 at 8:30 am
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February 15, 2009 at 11:44 am
What can I say, I like Stale and social studies teachers. And we’re Asian brothers anyway (assuming, as I do for some reason, that you’re a male – and confirming it by going to your “other blog” – nice living room!).
I love wikis, but hate assessing them. Wait, I hate assessing everything. Anyway, I did a few history projects on wikis I loved, and wikispaces invited me to present them in this webinar: http://beyond-school.org/2008/10/24/wikispaces-webinar/
Would love to hear your thoughts.
February 15, 2009 at 11:51 am
The last one, I swear: a blogging for current events assignment: http://beyond-school.org/2008/10/18/diigo-blogging-current-events/
March 1, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Wow – I need to check my comments more frequently. Clay, thanks for the links. I checked them both out, and now I have a few questions (hopefully you are still following this post):
The Google News/Diigo idea is very cool – very cool. What I’m wondering is whether or not it’s worth the time to set up all this cool IT stuff with my class, when I could have them do some of the same things in a more traditional manner? For instance, is it better to do this electronically rather than to have kids print out an article, read and annotate it, and then bring it to class for discussion and debate with peers? I feel intuitively that it might be better, but I’m not sure why – and I’m not sure if that’s a good enough reason to devote time and resources to it.
Second question: I know you said you hate assessing this kind of stuff – so how do/did you assess the Google News/Diigo project without it losing the technological “sex appeal”?
I’m thinking about a few other ideas, as well. I have debated on creating a class current events blog, with guest student-contributors. The idea would be to allow students to share their current events interests in an open and interesting forum. The only question I have is, would students actually want to read a current events blog, even if it was student-created and student-authored? Another idea I had was to encourage students to use something like Google News to follow a news story for a few weeks, and then create a podcast about that. Again, it has potential for good and potential for lame-ness.
Any thoughts?
March 2, 2009 at 8:11 pm
I say hands down it’s better.
1. You’re talking one article. I’m talking extensive reading, as a habit, across weeks or months on a topic.
2. You’re talking a classroom’s clock-time – that limits discussion in all sorts of negative ways. I’m talking always-open discussion (like this comment thread).
3. You’re talking disposable homework. I’m talking permanent online archive. If the students are given the motivation and freedom to learn something unprescribed enough, and the time to slog through the “this homework sucks” to the “omigod I’m beginning to learn a lot about the world through extensive and intensive reading about this topic,” then the highlighted and annotated articles online are things they’ll come back to, if ever they’re in a debate about something and want to show their proof.
That assumes that what they’re studying is relevant enough to care about – a big assumption, I think we agree.
4. You’re talking debate in class, I’m talking annotation and deep study at home. They’re different things. I’ve never found much success in forced discussions in the classroom. But it’s not an either/or.
5. You’re assuming this is time-consuming. I don’t agree. I think printing, highlighting, and hand-annotating are as (or more) time-consuming. Give Diigo a test-drive and I think you’ll agree.
6. Resources: waste paper on throwaway homework, or save it on permanent online “library” of annotated readings. Seems a no-brainer to me. (Depending on the assignment.)
I’ll have to get back to you on the assessment. My throat is swelling as I type. Time for chicken soup and then bed.
Short answer? You want to kill the sexy, then over-grade it. I’ve had students grade themselves, and justify their grade, based on guidelines for quantity and quality. But that’s just one approach.
(You should definitely go to your dashboard and check “email me comment notifications” if you haven’t.)