- An Article on how Wiki's can be useful in a math classroom. This article provides strategies on how to implement a Wiki and also some examples of how you could use a wiki in a math classroom. It also has a link to information regarding security and safety of students while using Wiki's.
- Darren Kuropatwa's Blog that has articles on general education issues/concerns. However, the valuable section for me is his links to his classroom blogs. This is where I could view how he organizes his Blog and provides information and encourages collaboration between his students. Here is a link to his AP Calculus Blog.
- Cool Cat Teacher Blog. The blog provided a storyline of how to implement a blog into a classroom and her though processes as she went. She mentioned questions that she asked her students, guidelines she set up and also provided a link to some student work.
- Teacher's First Wiki Walk Through. Wow! This resource was and is going to very useful. It has basic wiki information, examples of how to use a wiki in each subject area, an opportunity to look at other teacher's wiki's, information on why you should use a wiki, how to plan and implement it in your classroom, and issues that you might run into along the way.
- Example of a Math Wiki - In this wiki, the teacher used the wiki to allow students to add information about certain topics that they will be covering in class. This was one of the first examples I looked at and it is very basic. However, it got my thought process advancing in the right direction as to having students add information about specific content.
- Mr. Lindsay's Wiki - This wiki is much more developed. He has many different sections that the students can access. I was excited to see the homework tab as I thought it might be something along the lines of my TechQuest, however it was just a listing of homework assignments for the week. I found many wiki's that did exactly this, however not many that actually had students collaborate and allow them to receive feedback.
- Mrs. Atwood's Wiki - Even though this is not a math wiki, I liked what Mrs. Atwood achieved with her Wiki. She posted discussion questions for the students to think about after watching a documentary. The students then had to answer 2 of the questions and comment on 2 other posts. This really forced the students to collaborate and communicate and also gave them feedback efficiently.
In order to complete my search, I used few different search engines. After reading Valenza's article, I used her links to help me find my resources. The first I used was Google Scholar. To begin, I search "math teacher's wiki's" and did make some nice hits of examples to teacher's wikis. I navigated around my results for quite some time, looking through many different wiki's as I tried to develop a more concrete plan for my TechQuest. I then tried the search engine, Rollyo, which I found in Valenza's article. This time, I searched "how to use a wiki in a math classroom" and was able to find articles and blogs relating to my search. I went to a9.com, however could not seem to figure out how to use the search engine. Finally, I went back to my comfort zone and used Google and searched "examples of wiki's in a classroom" and navigated through some pages but didn't find much that I hadn't already found and used.
I found that on each of the search engines, I found examples of teacher's Wiki's (or links to them from another source), however when I searched for Math specific wiki's I didn't find many that had the collaboration component. Most of the Wiki's just had the homework and/or assignments listed, but did not have the students engage with it at all. So, I found myself looking at other content area's Wiki's for ideas. Something that hindered my search results were many invalid or old links that did not work. There were many times that I would get my hopes up and then have them disappear with an invalid link. I believe I found some very valuable resources, so if I had to search again, I would try to be a bit more descriptive in my words immediately so I could get the most accurate results quicker. I spent a lot of time on this research, so I'm sure that either there is a much more efficient way to do this or I just enjoyed looking at all of the results!
Your resources are very well organized, plus, they match your project to a "T". You have done a terrific job of using the Valenza tips, here. I agree with you about Google being a comfort zone - it's my first weapon of choice, too! I'm not sure if you'd be interested, but here is a plug in for inserting a discussion area at the bottom of a wiki page. http://www.dokuwiki.org/plugin:discussion. Looking forward to listening to your implementation podcast ~ Susan
ReplyDeleteJen,
ReplyDeleteI too fell victim to falling into the Google trap! I went right for it and used Google Scholar before looking at some of the MSU resources. I used a lot of Darren Kuropatwa's resources as well, both his blogs and wikis, and even a video of a teacher conversation from YouTube you might want to check out. I think your point about not utilizing wiki's for enough feedback, like in Mr. Lindsay's wiki, is right on. That you see that should definitely be a great guide in how you construct your wiki to communicate feedback more effectively. Can't wait to see where you go from here!
Jen,
ReplyDeleteSearching for our subject matter and wikis seem to be some what of a challenge for both of us. I really like the site Teacher's First Wiki Walk Through. I feel that that site is something that will be needed for our projects. Great Find! Google was a comfort zone for me too!
It always seems like we can find an abundance of information that is "almost" perfect doesn't it? You said you found a lot of wiki info but had trouble attaching it perfectly to math. I felt the same way with my information. Looking through the info you found, I think you did a great job locating precise info that will certainly benefit your project.
ReplyDelete