Thing #8

Wiki teaching seems to be a very useful tool. I love the opportunity that they provide for collaboration in the classroom. While exploring, I visited Go West, a wiki in which the students were broken up into groups, I'm assuming, and the students each reported on different aspects of the Oregon Trail. Some of the information included on the pages I explored were; time lines, explorers, hardships, luxuries, and women. I found this a much more meaningful way to explore the Oregon Trail versus the game I remember playing in the computer lab as an Elementary School student. :) I also visited the Thousands Project. This site was a bit confusing to me, but had such an awesome concept. The teacher/class authoring the Thousands Project posts a new topic of discussion each month. Their goal is to receive 1,000 responses by the end of the month. This would be a good tool to foster communication amongst students and set a basis for acceptance and a gain in knowledge of other cultures. It seems to me however, that this wiki is not maintained quite how it should be, the content seems scattered and incomplete. I'd love to see what the teacher does with the responses, to give the last bit of "meaning" the "why" to why they are doing the projects. Lastly, I chose to visit 1001 Flat World Tales. This wiki provided the opportunity to "share" a writing project. It's an ongoing story/stories, that are edited constantly by different people. I love the premise behind this, however I found the wiki a bit confusing to navigate through. In the Intel class that I am currently taking I created a "sample" wiki that would be a student example of work that would be expected. The process was very eye-opening for me, and I think our students could really benefit from the shared experiences.