Project Description

The educational need that I plan on addressing is the effectiveness of student to teacher feedback. More specifically, in my high school math classroom, it is extremely important for the students to practice the skill and then receive feedback on their practice. Currently, I do a few things in order to try and accomplish this. Examples: posting solutions on board or overhead, peer check, photocopy solutions and doing a carousel. However, I feel that none of these techniques accomplish my goal. Most of the students end up completely zone out, use it as a social time, cheat/copy and therefore do not check their work, make corrections or learn a thing.
I would like to use technology in order to motivate my learners to check their work, make corrections and learn the skills.

In order to address my educational issue, I am going to use a classroom wiki. I believe that incorporating a wiki in my classroom will have a significant impact on my learners motivation and also understanding of the material. An important note to make about the changes in my classroom in the fall is that all of my students will have their own laptop and I will have a SmartBoard. I believe that this will allow the wiki to be much more valuable as my learners will be able to communicate with me and also their fellow students.

In the research that I completed, I found some resources and examples.
Examples of wikis or blogs that are similar to my idea:
- A Solution Manual Wiki http://am40s.pbworks.com
- Classroom Blog Hub http://sargentparkmathzone.blogspot.com/
- Outcome Portfolio http://acrospire.pbworks.com/

I read an article, "Why Use Web 2.0 Tools when teaching Science and Math?" that addresses the major question of why! It also gives advantages for teachers when using Web 2.0 tools.
Another article, "Using Web 2.0 to breath new life into old projects" addresses that we don't have to throw the past out, but use it to help us develop our ideas for the future, which includes Web 2.0 tools.

My plan for implementation of my Wiki is to implement it with the start of school in the Fall. Therefore, I would like to begin getting it set up and get comfortable using it during the fall. Also, I am going to have to have a set of rules/guidelines for my students about posting and acceptable behavior while posting online.

My project addresses the following four common places of education:
Someone teaching - this will allow me as the teacher to be more of a facilitator or the "guide on the side"! I am so excited for this part, as I am constantly the "lecturer" and feel that I lose my students rapidly while doing so.
Someone learning - my 9th grade students will benefit greatly from the use of a wiki in our math classroom. It will be something new and exciting for them, so it will engage them and increase their motivation to learn. It will allow them to communicate in an open forum, ask questions, work with peers and also read and write math. This will allow me to communicate with some students that don't feel comfortable doing so in a classroom environment.
Subject Matter - my wiki will allow my learners to understand the Michigan High School Content Expectations more deeply. It will also provide my students with an opportunity to achieve some of their required hours of learning online.
In Some Setting - using a wiki in the classroom is wonderful, however the students can also access the wiki from home or even their cell phones! It allows the student to use in any setting!