I found a great website: http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/ that helps to address this question. The site is broken up into seven sections each containing ideas on wiki use for the specific area. The sections are: resource creation,student participation, group projects, student interaction, the classroom, the community and other. I found some great ideas to help me not only in art, but also with my role as a class and club sponsor.
There are wikis that will let you plan a virtual field trip to just about anywhere. I am currently in the process of exploring the louvre with my students through http://ketdiyeft.wikispaces.com/. KET's Do-It-Yourself Electronic Fieldtrips is a great starting place. It has worksheets available to download that walks you through the steps of electronic field trip planning. Instead of worrying about how much the bus will cost, can my kids afford it, or will I be able to get chaperones, the students can hop right in and plan content and how they are going to present it. Students can also use wikis to help them with exam reviews and even in getting good notes when they are absent. On veteran teacher Vicki Davis' blog, http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-use-wikis-what-do-you-do.html she talks about how she makes extensive use of classroom created wikis. She divides her wiki into two parts: classroom Organization and Classroom Content. I especially loved one idea she used in the content section called "Concept Introduction and Exploratory Projects." The idea is that when a new concept or topic that students and the teacher herself are not familiar with, then the whole group, Ms. Davis included start searching the web for information on the topic and post it to their wiki. By the end of the class period, they have become new subject experts and evryone had a hand in doing research.
Wikis are invaluable for group progress. Generally, high school students hate group projects. They are always worried that the workload will be unfair or someone won't pull their weight. Well, now they can use a wiki to post information and keep track of each other's progress. Putting their information in one place helps to create a unified presentation all with the click of a button. I found out that wikis are a great way to "get the word out" about upcoming class and club projects to not just my students but to parents as well. Students can take active roles in planning projects and keep the other members up to date on how the activity is coming along. These are just a few ideas that I found from the list of fifty to help get me going.
Bibliography:
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-use-wikis-what-do-you-do.html
http://ketdiyeft.wikispaces.com/
http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/
2 comments:
I'm finding the wiki to be central to the design of my digital classroom project. The smart teaching site that shows 50 different ways to use the wikis in a classroom is giving me lots versatility and different ideas about directions and the digital classroom can go. The addition of digital field trips is a huge advantage to the classroom teacher. I am however concerned concerned about the level of student attentiveness to a digital field trip. When going on the digital field trip can the students navigate themselves or is it teacher led?
I found this post to be very informative. Though I consider myself fairly technologically savy, I have yet to venture into the wiki world. This post gave me some great places to turn for guidance as well as some great ideas on how to use a wiki effectively. I also really like your point about group projects. I often hear complaints from my students about group members letting them down, but they don't want to rat their friends out to the teacher. A wiki project would eliminate their dilemma as each student would be held accountable for their work. It would also allow the teacher to check in on their progress in an unobtrusive way and provide feedback as needed.
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