My View of Wiki's

Shockingly, I had never heard of Wiki's before starting at UWG. I had to go to the new student orientation in August 2010 and had no idea what Dr. Bennett was talking about when she mentioned that UWG uses them. I immediately went home to investigate. I still didn't realize what a Wiki could be used for because I was just looking at one and not actually contributing. I had heard of Wikipedia but didn't know that there was anything else out there. I know differently now.

Within a week of first learning about Wiki's I had just started teaching and was trying to get familiar with the new reading series that was adopted by my county. Guess what? I found out that there is a great Wiki that is used for the new reading series. Each grade has a entire page of resources. I became very excited and tried to spread the word to other teachers.

In order to do this assignment I did a little bit of research on how Wiki's came about. I was again shocked when I saw that Ward Cunningham, Wiki creator, started developing and working on this in 1995. I feel like I must have been locked away in a closet or something. Now the wiki's that we know of today really didn't come about until the early 2000's so I shouldn't feel too bad. However, it does make me feel like a school building can sometimes be like an island. You are linked to others but at the same time what happens in your own building can sometimes be worlds apart from what everyone else is doing.

Posting on our class Wiki is the first time I've ever interacted with Wiki's. I think it's a great way to see other people's work. I also think that it works well when we are working in groups because it enables all group members to update and make changes to assignments. If we stick to email and discussion boards to create and work on assignments we group members tend to have many versions of a document before we are finished which can get confusing. I think that this would be a great way for students to post their work within classrooms or even on a grade level. Teachers/students could also post assignments or completed projects based on a particular unit of study or topic of interest. I think there is a lot of potential to use Wiki's in classrooms. It's also important to note that Wiki's are not blocked by Internet filters so it is an easy way to communicate work electronically.

I have a word of warning. Wiki's that are open to all to post and edit information can be altered or deleted either intentionally or unintentionally. Last week I went to our class Wiki to post my tech tip. I was hurry to do this because I was tired and wanted to go to bed. Somehow I ended up deleting the entire tech tips page. There was only white space. I was in a panic. I actually had to email Dr. Cooper to let him know I wiped out everyone's posted work. Luckily I sat and played around for awhile (after I got over my panic). I figured out that if I went into history and went back to the last post before mine I could "revert" back to that time. The last post before mine was at 5:08 p.m. and so I chose that and luckily the tech tips page became available again. I had to repost my work but that was not a problem. Just be careful before you click save. I think I accidentally highlighted everything, hit backspace and then hit save before I realized that it was all gone. Aside from that...enjoy!

Wikis

The only wiki I had heard of before I stared the Media program was Wikipedia. After I started the program and started researching the policy and procedure manual, I found that my school system's media department used a wiki for their county wide policy and procedure manual. The home page has the table of contents, and I have found a plethora of information there for both my policy and procedure manual and to answer my own questions about the county’s media department.

After reading the information in our course notes and textbook, I can see a lot of interesting uses for wikis in the media center. I liked the idea of using a wiki for a literature circle. After reading the assigned book, students can respond to questions listed on the wiki and comment on other students’ responses. It can also be used across several different schools in the county, or in the country, who are studying the same book at the same time. The mixture of comments from students living in different areas and having different perspectives could create a very dynamic and interesting discussion. A wiki could also be used for students to contribute book reviews on books selected by the media specialist. One drawback of using a wiki, in particular one for young students, is the lack of control over what is published on it. A media specialist would have to check the wiki often to ensure that its content is appropriate.

The readings mentioned ways a wiki could be used for staff members as well. One suggestion was to post lesson plans on a wiki, and have it open for everyone to contribute to. Since a wiki can host sounds, movies, pictures, and web links, it can be a great place to find multi-media information for lesson plans. The wiki for the Mzungu Boy lesson plan was a good example of what can be done with lesson plans on wikis. It included lots of information on the setting of the book (Africa), videos of the area, a link to information about the character’s village and even a link to a recipe for food mentioned in the book. Another suggestion was to post troubleshooting tips for technology or a Frequently Asked Questions page. Wikis with this sort of information would be best if they were locked so only certain people could change the content. This way, the information would remain accurate.

I reviewed both the wikis for Decatur High and Apalachee High. What a difference! The wiki for Decatur High was very basic and had a list of web links divided by subject. The wiki for Apalachee High took full advantage of the possibilities offered by a wiki. It had a screen shot of NoveList, links to resources like PINES and GALILEO, homework help, feeds from the New York Times, NPR and CBS News, and book cover pictures that were linked to Library Thing.

The readings mentioned a wiki that had been open for 6 years and not one person had contributed information. If one is going to create an open wiki where everyone can contribute, it will have to be advertised and its use encouraged.

Podcasting in Schools

I made my first podcast for this class. I was very nervous about how to do this. I had tried doing this for another class last semester but couldn't figure out how to do it on my Mac. You would think that apple.com would have a tutorial on how to do this but if so I couldn't find it. I played around until I finally figured out how to do it. I was actually amazed at how easy it ended up being. I now feel a lot more confident about doing this in the future.

I started to do a little research on podcasting in schools and have found that there is a wealth of information out there on using podcasting in schools. You do not need to have an iPod to view podcasts. You only need a computer and microphone. We have a lot of whiteboards in our school so this could be easily done in the classroom. Has this been done?? No. My school is not utilizing podcasting. I think one reason is that most of the teachers don't realize that podcasting is something they can do. Another is that the administrators have no idea that podcasting can be done.

I then started thinking about ways to use podcasts at school. The first thing that popped into my head was Black History Month. We are doing daily trivia questions over the intercom. We have music playing and clues are given. Students have to turn in their responses and at the end of the day a winner is announced. It would be so cool to put together a podcast with these clues. Not only could the students hear the questions but they could see the video or pictures to go along with it. I think kids would be so much more involved and interested. In fact, Exceptional Children's week is coming up and I think I'm going to have the special ed department put together a podcast each day. We usually talk about famous people that have disabilities. Teachers with whiteboards could view it. I'm not sure how to go about getting access to classrooms that don't have access. There are still a few weeks left to figure that out.

The last thing I realized is that podcasts could also be used to help bridge the gap between teachers and parents. Our PTA has their own website. If we made podcasts of important information it would be a quick way to get information out. We also have a large Hispanic population. Some of those parents don't read in Spanish so when we send letters home they don't always get that information. If we put up some podcasts in Spanish it would help get the information out to those parents as well.

Podcasting can definitely create changes in a school. I had not thought about this before. I think that initially it will be time consuming until we become familiar with doing it. I think it would then become almost second-nature.