Jenny+Livingston

Initial thoughts about ways to use a wiki in my classroom... I can see a wiki being useful in my teaching to share information regarding concert information, communicating information with students and parents, getting feedback from students and parents about various things. I would like to have it be of more educational use, though. I loved the comparison chart of the 20th to the 21st Century Classroom shared in the Possibilities for 21st Century Education site. I feel use of a wiki in an educational sense where the students can have some ownership of the wiki by contributing to and editing it's content really engages them in higher level thinking skills as well as collaborating with their peers. I've definitely experienced the shift to this change in instruction over my almost 20 yrs. of teaching. In "Ways to Use Wikis In the Classroom" I got the idea of using the wiki to create classroom and/or online policies together - this is important in my teaching of choir where community building is ever so important to the development of the vocal ensemble. I also liked the idea shared there of creating a class dictionary of vocabulary terms. For my situation this would be musical terms found in the pieces we would be rehearsing. I would also like my class wiki to be a place where my students could find and share audio and video files of good vocal and/or guitar performances. Students need good modeling in all areas and this would be an excellent opportunity for them to be able to explore and listen to various suggested musical models.

My concerns are having enough time to manage the wiki, but perhaps if my students are given the responsibility to add to and edit the wiki, they may end up doing most of the work! :) Seriously, I guess it's a bit of the fear of the unknown, as was eluded to in the "Possibilities for 21st Century Education" in the "Teaching the Elephant to Dance" section! I know many of my students are much more comfortable with technology than I am and love to help and share their knowledge. Of course I'm concerned if any students would post inappropriate content, but I know this was already addressed and I'm sure we'll be discussing the possibility of "approving" content contributed by students before it is posted for others to view.

The challenges I see are keeping the wiki current and interesting so students want to continue to visit it to collaborate and contribute.

I visited the listed sites and wanted to share a few points on some of them ...

I found the Digital Nation video quite interesting. I've studied brain research mostly in terms of how music affects the brain and which areas of the brain are active in different educational activities, however I never thought about the effect of the use of digital media on our brains. I found this to be very intriguing in terms of the effects of our students as their brains are still developing. I was very surprised to hear that those who "multitask" tend to be slower at tasks than when not multitasking and that when multitasking they are worse at analytical reasoning due to be distracted and unorganized. It makes sense, but I had just never thought about it. The studies done by Dr. Gary Small in regard to brain activity when reading a book vs. completing a google search are interesting. Again, I just had never thought about the changes in brain development that may be brought about by the extensive use of digital media. Tracy: this sounds really interesting; I will have to check this out.

**Emmy:** Recently I read/heard(?) an interesting way to convince kids that multi-tasking does slow one down. The author suggested this test: Count to 10 as fast as you can; then say the alphabet from A to J; then say 1A,2B, 3C, etc. up to ten. The point will be obvious if you try it. Saying them each separately takes much less time than combining them because your brain has to keep switching tasks

Jenny: Interesting, Emmy! And a very good way to illustrate this to our students! It sure makes sense!

The "Wikis In Plain English" was a nice and kind of funny :) overview of wikis. It was helpful to me who has never used a wiki before now. I found it humorous that someone wrote a comment questioning why Mary is going camping with three guys!

Tracy: I liked this too -- although when I actually got to the Wikis I was a little disappointed I couldn't write on it randomly and move things around quite so easily! Or.... at least I haven't figured that out yet!

**Emmy:** Yes, the file format for the wiki in many ways is more primitive than we are used to for programs like MSWord. On th other hand, it allows you to embed widgets.

"Footprints in the Digital Age" made me think about my students, and also about my own kids and my nieces and nephews in terms of the digital footprint they will create for themselves ... something I didn't have to think of as a child. I liked how the use of digital media was referred to as "this new literacy". It sure is a whole new language, but one that is so easily picked up by our children. My three year old is able to navigate our iPad with ease without us ever showing her how to do the things she's doing. I find myself asking her how she found things! It's hard to believe sometimes! This article also shared that "this may be the first large technological shift in history that's been driven by children". I would agree! I feel that I need to try to keep up with my students so as not to be left in the dust technologically. I agree with the notion of teachers as colearners..."modeling our own use of connections and networks and understanding the practical pedagogical implications of these technologies and online social learning spaces". I also agree with the idea shared that "more than ever before students have the potential to own their own learning - and we have to help them seize that potential". This is one reason why I'm here to learn about wikis! Cindy, Footprints in the Digital Age, I was reminded of some of the newscasts I have seen where employers have searched the internet to find information about potential employees. Some people have not gotten a job because of inappropriate material they have put on the internet. I have told students that once it is out there they can not take it back. They have to think about what they will leave behind. Tracy: I agree with this to a point too -- but I am also amazed at what most students can't do with technology - most struggle to make a table or do other features of Word. I would think their skills in this area would be better, but perhaps their writing uses more informal technologies. Mickey: I agree! They are certainly a group of explorers when it comes to technology. they have more patience and like to navigate more than I ever think I could without getting frustrated. I also found how much they rely on technology....I had a student ask me today how Mozart could have thought to add all of those parts together to create a great piece of music without a program of some kind. Crazy how they think.

I visited Will Richardson's blog - Weblogged and his wiki. I also read what was available for Chapter 4 from his book? Is there a location online where we can access the entire chapter? I could only find part of the book available via Amazon, obviously certain pages were not available to view. I liked and agree with the statement made about how we need to "continue to move toward a world where everyone has access to ideas and where collaboration is the expectation rather than the exception". Again the idea of letting the students manage the site was presented and that through this process of writing and editing that the "students begin to teach each other and develop and use all sorts of collaborative skills".

I looked at the Best Wikis of 2010 - unfortunately the top one, Greeting From the World, is being revamped and the glogs were not viewable today. I'll check back!

More later, but for now I'm excited about figuring out exactly how to use a wiki with my classes and all of the possibilities it may hold!


 * Use of Wikipedia in research and how would I advise administration**

I feel the use of wikipedia is fine as long as it is used in conjunction with other resources. I think it's important to teach our students that they cannot believe everything they read or hear so they need to conduct further research to back up their findings.

I guess I would share with administration the same thought posted above. Wikipedia can be used like I once used the encyclopedia sets my parents had .. I would start there and then would head to the library to search for books, magazine articles and other periodicals on the topic I was researching. Wikipedia can be useful, but shouldn't be relied upon for all of the information one is seeking on a subject.

Although I feel overwhelmed after viewing some of the educational wikis out there and realize mine will not compare to many of those at this point, I am content to know we all have to start somewhere and I'm just excited to have this tool to use with my students. I bet if I allow my students to help me manage our classroom wiki that in no time I'd have a wiki that would be quite impressive with the technological savvy these students have these days! Plus, they'll feel proud to be so involved in it's creation and maintenance, I'm sure!
 * Questions, Tips, Problems, Triumphs**