We would love to hear thoughts about our wiki project from teachers, students and other visitors. Please email us!
debbie.herzig@woodward.edu
With the added emphasis on technology in the classroom, I envisioned a cumulative technology project based on our study of the historical fiction novel, Turn Homeward, Hannalee. When I introduced the idea to my students, they became quite enthusiastic about their participation in a project that would benefit many other students and teachers.
Students individually researched their assigned topics and then gathered with their groups to compile and assimilate the information. At this point, I became the facilitator of the project, and the students became the decision-makers. They took ownership of our project and had some very definite opinions on how to accomplish their goals. With Mrs. Paul handling the technical portion, I was able to help the students with grammatical concerns. When we completed the wiki creation process, the class viewed the different sections and critiqued each for accurate content, spelling, and sentence structure. My students’ pride was evident as they viewed their special sections.
Not only was this a successful cooperative learning lesson, but our Hannalee Wiki web site proved to be a team-building experience that will be remembered by my students for many years to come. This project could not have been possible if it had not been for the foresight, help, and guidance of Mrs. Shelley Paul, and my students and I are eternally grateful.
ansley.henkel@woodward.edu
This project gave the students the opportunity to “become the teacher” and is a great example of authentic learning. The students immediately took ownership of this project, so I was able to simply facilitate the process. I was pleasantly surprised that everything ran so smoothly even though I had never attempted to create a website on my own or with my students. Since the students were each given a different area to work on they were able to express what they had learned in their own unique way. This activity allowed the students to integrate what they had learned to create something new. Also, it gave the students a confident feeling to see their work in a format that will help other students and teachers learn about the two thousand Georgia mill workers who were shipped north by the Union Army during the Civil War, and the many other historical facts and interesting information from Turn Homeward, Hannalee.
shelley.paul@woodward.edu
I had just finished reading Will Richardson's wonderful book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms when Mrs. Herzig approached me about planning a culminating project for the fifth grade study of Turn Homeward, Hannalee. I have been circling around possibilities for incorporating Web 2.0 tools for awhile now, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to jump in. We decided to create a comprehensive study guide for other students and teachers. I looked at PBWiki and WikiSpaces as potential hosts for the project, then was fortunate to be able to set up a local site using DoKuWiki.
Under the guidance of Mrs. Herzig and Ms. Henkel, the students completed all of the research, writing and drawing before logging into the wiki. I set up the wiki skeleton with categories defined by the teachers, then gave an introduction and demonstration of basic syntax. The students did virtually all of the page creation, formatting, linking and uploading, with teacher coaching. After the initial publication, students proofread the site, making note of factual, grammatical and formatting errors, then edited accordingly.
The productive student “buzz” surrounding this project was amazing. It takes a leap of faith to try something completely new, and to accept the “messiness” that accompanies a collaboration with so many moving parts. I am grateful to both Mrs. Herzig and Mrs. Henkel for jumping in. The students, of course, took ownership with no hesitation. I can’t wait to try this again.
A couple of technical notes:
