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===What are your initial thoughts about ways that you might use a wiki in your classroom. Discuss the possibilities, the concerns, the challenges to using the read/write web with students. Be sure to reference some of the sites you are visiting or the books and magazine articles you are reading. //Check the rubric for participation in discussion (to be found in the syllabus or in the "Course Documents" on BlackBoard)//===


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John...

As I read my way thru the suggested readings along with my own experience with wikis, I can't help but continue to get excited by the possibilities. As we all know the ccss (common core state standards) movement, (now) and the SBAC process arriving in the 14-15 school year are very dominating in school work these days. The work of Teachers and Principals and all who are preparing for the very near future of learning continues to be focused on school accountabilities.. (My opinion)

However when I read this excerpt **bold below** from the 21 century school site, it quickly reminds me what information technologies started quite some time ago. What should we really be focused on...? Talk about multiple priorities!

The article in the ASCD website “footprints in the digital age” is a great reminder of the reality that the web is the best and sometimes the scariest of scenarios for our children.
 * Schools in the 21st century will be laced with a project-based curriculum for life aimed at engaging students in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions that matter. **
 * This is a dramatic departure from the factory-model education of the past. It is abandonment, finally, of textbook-driven, teacher-centered, paper and pencil schooling. It means a new way of understanding the concept of “knowledge”, a new definition of the “educated person”. A new way of designing and delivering the curriculum is required **
 * more Later.. concerns and challenges... (I hope its ok for me to use black font color?) **

// “This may be the first large technological shift in history that's being driven by children. Picture a bus. Your students are standing in the front; most teachers (maybe even you) are in the back, hanging on to the seat straps as the bus careens down the road under the guidance of kids who have never been taught to steer and who are figuring it out as they go.” //

One of the problems at times with me is that I’m an eternal optimist …and the current status of regulatory methods on the www are in early levels of development, and to some degree have yet to be invented / understood or is it even possible when considering the foundation of access to information as the www has defined it.. (Probably not good in some degrees). One of the most recent revelations for me regarding who’s driving the bus is my daughter’s first couple of weeks in high school. They use facebook to basically collaborate about common homework assignments. So as the story goes the dad, (me) asks my daughter how her homework load is going, is it tougher then Middle school, what’s the deal? She quickly responds not really its about the same, and then goes on to tell me her opinion about some of her new HIGH SCHOOL teachers, she goes on, predicatibely to say she really like’s some of them all the way down to the usual comments that in the end is the NOT SO MUCH statement quickly followed by me telling her to check her personal character level before another word comes out… at some point off we go to the next topic. Later that night I went online to check grades and all was good, straight A status was the deal and dad is very happy. I couldn’t help but wonder wow how great it was that she was havening such a good start to the school year. The next time we were together we were heading out in the car to get a bit to eat when I noticed she was particularly dug in to her Smartphone, she could hardly look up, this went on for 10 -15 minutes a couple frustration noises came out and finally I said what’s going on she replied FACE BOOK, and again predictably I say turn that thing off your with me, she quickly fires back dad this is important and I say no its not… and then she says I’m trying to figure my Spanish homework, quickly followed by crickets. Yup I had no words because I just realized that she was driving the bus. Her and her 500 plus friends on face book were collaborating about home work not who has the best outfit on today. Yup, a wake up call.

Jennifer: Sort of tangentially related.....my team/house/whatever we're calling it this year has been allowing limited use of electronic devices (e-readers/iPads/iPods/smartphones) in the classroom because we do realize that they can be incredibly useful. For example, when the (one and only) computer lab is booked for the first month and a half of the school year for MAP testing, having kids with devices that access the internet in class has allowed the social studies teacher to continue to do her start of the year project with the (just) 12 computers in the library. Certainly, I allow them to silent read books on devices. Some even like to journal write on them, and then connect at home and print a nicer looking copy than handwriting would allow. But then.....in homeroom, while using his smartphone as a calculator, the group was startled/disturbed by someone texting this student! (A co-worker said that will teach him to leave the sound on!) I told him to tell his friend that next time they would both be in trouble (technically, by school rules, I should have confiscated the phone), because I knew my student was indeed doing homework - it was his friend in some other class who was goofing off. I know it's similar to the old note-passing....but since I personally, have NO fancy devices, I am at a loss about how to "catch" it because I don't know how to use it! **Emmy:** A whole new issue that I certainly never had to consider when I was teaching HS English. I have been thinking how I would begin to deal with this. One thought that came to mind is that when you catch them doing it, give them a virtual "detention" activity related to texting - give them a question to answer in a dialog (texting) format on a relevant topic related to the appropriateness of using their class time to text or related to designing a learning activity using texting as the communicating/collaborating/writing tool. You know your students and your course objectives, so you would be in a better position to create a question that would engage them in texting purposefully. The more I think about this, the more I think that it is really the message sender that is the problem. A kid could at any time get a "friend" of his in trouble by sending an unwanted text. So the sender is the one who should be dealt with.As for "catching" the texting activity. There really is no way that I can think of to know when a text is being sent if the phone is silenced. If it is on for Internet access or other legitimate activity,you can't selectively block out texting. Given your strictest vigilance, they will find their way around the technology. As a teacher, I would put my energies into designing an activity with technology use so engaging that social uses would be reduced to a minimum - same principles as in the jamie MacKenzie website I referred you to earlier.

**Emmy:** Evolution at work! In the end it is never ABOUT the technology. The technologies are simply new tools, but such powerfully different tools that force us to re-think the learning environment, the curriculum and our role in it. These are the enduring concerns of educators and we are in a particularly challenging time!

**Emmy::** YES, is black all colors??? I think it is. Do you think, as you look at the CCS that they in any way are addressing the larger 21st century skills referenced in your citation above? Do the fundamental skills required for living as a fully engaged, thinking,committed human being change with different tools of access to information, problem-solving, communication, creative and critical thinking? I look forward to your addressing the concerns and challenges. You are in a unique position to have an impact **!**

FROM JENNIFER While I am eager to try new things, and very aware that technology is very appealing and motivating to my students, I have concerns. We don't always have access to technology at school, and some students have no access at home. I want to keep my students safe - I used to have a strong web presence myself, but became concerned about who could see my website, what they were learning about me, and what their intention were. When Will Richardson writes about wanting his kids to be "good" when Google'd, I realized how far I've come the other direction. From posting on tons of bulletin boards and having my own extensive (though random) website in college and just beyond, I know scour Google to make sure no one can find me or my information! Here I was, back when it was Web 1.0, turning it into Web 2.0 for myself - and today, when Web 2.0 is the norm, I find myself trying to protect myself and my students from the lack of privacy that represents. Is it just a generational thing? When we're young, we crave more attention?

But enough with concerns. I do want to learn to use this technology safely and effectively with my students, and for my own collaboration with other teachers. As soon as I watched the "Wikis in Plain English on YouTube" I knew I wanted to have a Wiki for English/Language Arts lesson plans based on the new Common Core State Standards. The 6-12 English/Language Arts Department has been working on understanding the standards for over a year now....which has filled up every moment of our department meetings and inservice days. We've never had a chance to talk about what we have done in the classroom - what worked, what didn't, how did we help our students with these rigorous new standards. So that was my first idea for a Wiki, although it wouldn't actively involve students.

So as I browsed through the ideas on the award-winner sites and others, I noticed the idea of using a Wiki to come up with class rules and expectations. I loved that! For the past few years, I challenge my new sixth graders to create the class rules and expectations, based on their years of experience in school. (As I point out, sixth grade is often their SEVENTH year in school, if they started in K-4.) They brainstorm in their notebooks individually the first day, the second day work in small groups to come up with a list they all agree on, and then I take all the lists, type them up (removing duplicates), and post "**our** rules and expectations". Using a Wiki would save me a weekend of typing! (I have four classes to bring together in the final list.) And frankly, they would like it better than pen and pencil work.

I do want to meet my 21st century students here in the future. I don't want to continue teaching the way we did before we had all this marvelous technology. The 21st Century reading really hit me, as it is VERY true - you have to be willing to take on the challenge. I never go home at the end of the work day. But then, I'm not starting on page one of a textbook, copying the worksheets from the teacher's edition, and calling it a day. I am constantly trying to integrate something new, something engaging for our modern learners. I am not saying I have all the answers, or that I am a perfect teacher - I'm taking this class because I need help, advice, guidance! But I am willing to take on the challenge.

Emmy:

I appreciate your concern with the "footprint" we create on Internet - a brand new challenge that Web 2.0 has brought into our lives. Just being aware of that is, for you, a powerful filter, as you also search for the positive contribution the Web 2 technology has made and can make - in our lives as communicators/collaborators. You are in a unique position with young people to guide them, create opportunities for them to experience the best of this collaborative environment. There are few road maps right now!

I think the "class rules and expectations" is a great way to introduce them to that kind of collaboration - they are all invested in **that** topic. You sound like the kind of teacher who will find a unique creative way to use this with your students. I will say again, this doesn't happen over night. One learns the technology, then gradually begins to ask the question: How do I rethink what I do now, what works for me now, and redesign that to capitalize on the power of technology, that powerful tool that captivates young people and brings them into the game - the serious game of learning.

Your own background in technology will guide you! You sound like a digital native!