23 Things

I created my first Wiki this year. My initial goal was provide a space where my students could go to check their homework, find information about current projects and also provide links to help my students review for tests, quizzes and exam. I am very satisfied with the results, and I really like the link I created with my google calendar. It enables me to update homework easily and from anywhere. However, as I read through the “educational” wikis listed on the course page, I realized I just scratched the surface of the educational use of Wikis.

One of the Wikis I enjoyed the most was 1001 Flat World Tales. I use the TPRS method in my French classrooms and it gave a lot of ideas when it comes to story telling with students. I usually asked my students to write or illustrate stories that they can share with their classmates the next day in class. I believe that my sixth and seventh grade students would enjoy not only being Scheherazade, but also being the King and giving their opinion on the stories written by their classmates. It would also give each student a larger public and motivate them to produce better stories. Another Wiki I enjoyed is the Thousand projects where students from a fifth grade classroom ask questions each month and hope to receive at least a thousand answers from students around the world. I believe this activity could be used to compare and contrast culture in various francophone countries, if students could list their favorite songs, movies, and food. Students may learn that they have a lot more in common than they thought. This activity could also be used to compare ways to save energy in different schools. The third Wiki that attracted my attention was the Kindergarten counting book. I believe that students can learn a lot about another language by teaching it to younger students. I think that my students would enjoy helping French speaking kindergarten students learn to read or count by creating a Wiki designed for this purpose.

I look forward to putting some of these ideas into practice in the future. I do believe that a proper organization of the Wiki is essential to reach the learning outcomes. I would make sure that I include a map to how my students who visited their Wiki to answer their questions.