Matt's dashboard

I have thought about having students create individual pages however, I like that the students can read other students posts. I think that it encourages students to take their time and think about what they are going to say before they post.

I give students a week to post their answers before we discuss it in class. Students have readily posted when they feel strongly about something so it really depends on the topic. There are always a few who wait until the last second.

Hi Kori,

That's an interesting approach - have you found that your students readily answer the questions, or do they wait for others to post first? I like how they individualize their answers in color.

I've noticed a bunch of teachers who encourage their students to create a personal wiki page and respond to assignments on that page.

-KM

In order to improve my students writing and reasoning skills in my social studies classes, I occasionally use my wiki as a discussion board. I post a question related to whatever topic we are covering and students are required to post a response (at times they are also required to reply to other student posts). This gives students who normally don't speak in class a chance to share their views. It forces all students to form an opinion and support their position.

A few times a year I word the question in the form of a standardized test question. It is my hope that this will help students practice extended response answers. Students are told that they are being graded on how well they support their answers.

An example can be found at http://mrsatwood.pbwiki.com/Election+...

Hi Sammy- I'd love to help you with this. Yaplet is a chat service. You can install a variety of chat services on your wiki- if you go to "Edit Page" -> "Insert Plugin" -> and then "Chat" you can see what's available.

You may also want to check out some of the templates we have available for librarians (http://educators.pbwiki.com/Sample+te.... This should give you a good start :)

HI Rachael, I'm glad I met you here. Virtual Referencing is actually my area of interest. I'm trying to creat this using a PBwiki in a form of FAQ for our growing library. I'll be glad if you could put me through and give me a basic idea on how to go about this. by the way, what is "Yaplet"? Regards. -sammy

I have a free pbwiki which I use as the link page for students and families, so they cannot edit those pages at all. I have also used team wikis so only teams of students can have access to those wikis. I login at the beginning of the day for those so I don't need to change the password. The pages can be public for families to view also. For a class of 20, the team idea may work well for you.

In my premium wiki, I lock some of the pages so students cannot edit them.

Also, although I have low computer ownership among my students, almost all families have access to a computer somewhere -- work, friends, relatives, etc.

Internet safety lessons are a must; internet literacy is also. I also have only had a few inappropriate items, just in the storytelling, though. Not in the bullying aspect. Students don't use their names; we use a code name or initials.

Wikis are such a powerful tool. Thanks for your input.

Sheri,
I take your "password of the day" to be a notice up in the room that changes/announces the contributor log-in; this allows your wiki to be at the free intro level. Their work can be public because you have nipped password sharing.

I hope many teachers will respond to this thread and others so I can try out many classroom uses. There is another [earlier] thread here with good discussion and education use sites. (It's hard to balance the read-a-lot vs. do-a-lot ways of change... for me.)

I'm a 5th grade general ed teacher w/20+ students. I have a pbWiki premium v1 wiki and had planned to move to the v2 model to improve my control and oversight. I have the wiki set to be public because I want to train families to view the work of the students and use the site for the kind of information that goes home in [innumerable] paper notices that get lost. (We have low household computer use by students where I teach, however.)

So I want to have writing go up and other material I can scan/copy in a photo. I want to create a newsletter format that teaches the difference between opinion and reporting. I plan to have the classroom information: job descriptions, student list, homework, rubrics, reference materials, etc. always available up at the front of the room. I want the kids to share their favorite learning sites.

More importantly I want the community at large to see the work of their children! That and info families need will increase the use of the 'net at home. Many local families are unsure about/outright scared of the Internet. I spend time teaching Internet safety, despite that fact that it doesn't fit into the requirements I have to follow under NCLB.

An example of oversight needed was the time I saw a student name changed to a negative comment on the navigation page providing links to student personal pages. I found the change on one of my e-mailed notices, and that notice tells me that it was student so-and-so. However, what if the kids realize that they can claim to be someone else entering the wiki?

I realize that if this is all the problem I have had since my recent introduction of pbwiki I am not doing too badly, but I shut off the contributions until I work out a new process.

Jonathan

I post my lesson plans for students and parents for all my classes, grades 5-8 writing. I provide student descriptions on the wiki and some downloads for parents and students.

My 7 old classroom computers are set up with a wiki home page from which students can link to assignments, follow directions with links to research sites, and compose assignments independently or collaboratively.

I love the easy editing without a need to print out papers. I created a list of daily passwords so I keep the site within in my control. That makes the wiki an extension of our classroom. The computer lab also links to the wiki, and I can provide the IT with the password.

The more I incorporate the wiki features (edit/comments/visibility), the more I will include it in assignments. I really appreciate the ease of use.

~Thanks for the clarification Krissy Mo!

A>Given the great variation in learning styles, especially in beginning wiki users; approaching with one wiki schema in mind seems wrong headed.

B*Making projects available to students discourages individual learning if progress is focused toward a single process that will be replicated once the students have learned it.

C&Allowing collaboration to continue on new themes with the same topics may foster a more fluid, infectious and enjoyable class.

Great post Jason - this is what I commented on your blog.

The huge takeaway for me is the overwhelming need to structure the project so your students know how to interact with the wiki.

For your issue with providing feedback to your students class notes - I think this is a great problem to have! I have two ideas 1) You can intervene either by mentioning the same topic in class again, or 2) by involving yourself in the collaboration process and editing the wiki yourself.

What do you think?

I've had some success using the wiki to improve class notes. Here's an account of the assignment:
http://www.jbj.wordherders.net/2008/0...

I use wikis in my math classes where each course has a separate wiki. I use the wiki to maintain some of the introductory course documents and a calendar. Students maintain the chapter pages, by creating a study guide for each chapter. We also maintain a questions pages were we answer each other's questions. My geometry classes recently used the wiki to work on a partner project.

I use wikis for several classes. I teach second year programming and used wikis for software engineering projects. I have used wikis in general education math courses where students played a research game.

I am currently creating paging of 'get back to me' questions and ask students to post comments as to the answers.

I will be using wikis this semester to in my calculus 3 course.

In several of my seminars, I set up a page for each class meeting. At the top of the page I list the required reading assignment and then list options for further reading. Each class session also has assigned student moderators. In the days leading up to the class session, they're responsible for posting a class plan: questions and passages they'd like their classmates to consider in preparation for discussion. The other students are responsible for reading the class plan and posting responses, either directly on the page or using the comments tab. When we arrive in class, I set up a writing prompt drawn from the students' comments, and after the students have written for five minutes or so, the moderators take over, and direct the discussion. Because the discussion has started in advance of class, and because students have been sharing ideas about what questions and passages are interesting, the discussion is livelier and more collaborative than it might otherwise be. For me, this has been a big improvement over the more traditional seminar presentation.
--Lisa

Matt-
How are you integrating a wiki with your students research project? I'd love to know what your planning.
-Kristine

I am encouraged by your post. As an educator new to wikis I am building up the courage to 'break the mold' and try out something new with my 12th grade students for an upcoming research project.