One of the things that has been both a blessing and a curse is the fact that I have no overall project that this is fitting into – it’s not part of a history project or a literature circle or anything of that sort. As this is a technology (ok fine, it’s a keyboarding class) class, the objectives are the actual skills involved in editing a wiki (which translate to other web applications) which will then be used in other (core) classes (in an ideal world). The fact that there’s no overall project is nice because the kids get to choose their topic, but they’re having a hard time understanding that they get to choose what their pages are about (wonder why?).
Here are the steps of the project:

1. Learn basic Apple keyboard shortcuts (this makes copying and pasting much easier later on)
2. Learn how to create hyperlinks in Microsoft Word (get to learn this skill before entering the wiki-world)
3. Learn how to open a new tab and navigate between tabs in Safari
4. Learn how to CTRL+click to open links in new tabs or windows
5. Learn how to log in to our wiki on wikispaces
6. Explore the editing features in wikispaces
7. Learn how to create a hyperlink in the wiki
8. Insert pictures on a wiki page
9. Embed video on a wiki page

Again, all of these skills translate to other web content creation and are key digital skills for efficient work online.
We have only made it through step 5 and since we only have one day left, we won’t get to the videos this time around. I plan to start the project earlier with the next group so we can make it through the entire project.

Here are the steps I took to get everything set up:

1. Created an ad-free education wiki on wikispaces
2. Had wikispaces create 30 student accounts (they had it done in less than 24 hours)
3. Created 30 student pages

*Note – the pages and accounts all have corresponding numbers from 1-30. Student 1 has a login that includes “student1″ and will then work on Student Page 1. Much easier for being able to re-use the logins and pages.
Actually teaching the lesson was a lot of fun and although the usual craziness occurred (30 kids on a mishmosh of machines, some craziness guaranteed) the students did a great job and had fun (wait, does that mean they didn’t learn?)

The lessons I learned from this:

1. Wikispaces looks and acts VERY different on a Mac running an ancient version of Safari compared to a PC running Firefox – my school has a Mac lab (only school that has Macs in whole district) and I work on a PC and teach on PCs in the rest of my schools. The main thing was that the color and other editing options didn’t work for the kids on their pages and when they were inserting links, they couldn’t see what it would look like until they saved and went back to the “pretty page”. Say what? Pretty page? Hate to admit it, but that’s what we call the wiki pages that everyone actually sees – it’s the pretty page and the behind-the-scenes page (in edit mode). It works for us!
2. I desperately need a projector in my classroom. I’m getting better and better about giving great descriptive instructions, but I NEED a projector. Need one.
3. None of the tasks in this project were easy for the students. They caught on, but not one of the skills was already known. For all of the talk (not mine) of digital ***** (can’t say the word), online productivity is NOT an inherent skill.
4. No matter how many times I say “Only edit YOUR page”, they’ll still forget and just start working on the home page. 5 kids at once were all working on the home page! 5!
5. I might need to create another wiki for the next group rather than just reusing this one, because the students were disappointed that someone else would be working on their pages that they’d started. No big deal, I’ll probably do that. I will re-use the usernames and logins, though, since they’re generic – even if the kids want to work on their pages outside of my class when they’re out of my rotation, the chance of them being on at the same time as the other student with their login is very slim.

I’m absolutely loving teaching these skills and the very best part? 1/2 of the class was begging to be allowed to work on it over the weekend. ‘Nuff said.

If you have helpful tips for me, I’d welcome them with open arms!

My Related Posts

Blog + Wiki Class Project
Wiki + Blog Project #2
Wiki + Blog Class Project #3
Updates Galore

Resources to help you get started

Apple Keyboard Shortcuts – very simple handout I created for class
Getting Started with Wikispaces – I just found this today after figuring out a lot of this stuff through trial and error – great guide by Liz Davis
Mobile Technology in TAFE Guide to Wikis – Sue Waters’ resource list for teaching with wikis (again, just found this today!)
Wikispaces for Teachers – site for creating your own education wiki
Wikispaces Help for Teachers – FAQ on education wikis
Batch Account Creation on Wikispaces

Note: My blog has now moved to Kate Says – please visit this post there if you’d like to comment or read responses from others!

WordPress – includes how-to’s, themes, plugins and more

Plugins – WordPress plugins (also in WordPress)

HTML – basic guides

CSS – basic guides

I’m just starting these, so some may be slightly sparse at the moment. If you have something to share, just drop it in a comment or share it with me through del.icio.us!

Steve Hargadon - Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education

Will Richardson – Yet Another Reason We Should Be Teaching, Not Blocking, Wikipedia

I’m doing something I saw on a blog yesterday and closing comments on this post – add to the discussions on the original posts for the greater blogging community!

We were yet again unable to get through the filters to visit some of the sites I planned to, but that didn’t stop us from having an excellent discussion about the technologies that are popular with students today. The parents in attendance were unfamiliar with web-based email, so I gave a demonstration of how to set up a gmail account. This was actually an excellent introduction to a discussion on how easy it is for anyone to create a new identity online, as well as how easy it is for students to create their own email accounts at home. The gmail demonstration led to a demonstration of instant messaging, which the parents were also unfamiliar with. I just used the chat feature available in gmail and sent out a cry for help to three members of my PLN asking for some sort of response to help with the demonstration. I was lucky enough to get a response from @brunsell - thanks Eric! It was very interesting to describe something that has become so much a part of my online life – the parents kept asking “why do you do this?” and “why would my child want to do this?”. These were excellent questions and led to a great discussion on setting limits on time online and the distraction factor of instant messaging.

In an attempt to demonstrate social networking without being able to access MySpace and Facebook, I showed the parents Classroom 2.0 and my page there. I think everyone in attendance was a bit shocked at how much information I put out online, as well as the fact that my picture is plastered everywhere. This led into a discussion on how I use social networking for my profession, and giving more information is necessary to gain credibility. I, as an adult, have the choice to offer this information as I see fit. Our students and children should not be given the choice – it’s the same as all of the other rights that come with adulthood. We also discussed parents putting pictures of their children online and whether that is appropriate or not – the parents in attendance were of the opinion that it’s not ok, and I explained that although I don’t put pictures of my children anywhere other than my invite-only online photo albums in Snapfish, many other parents DO make their photos public, and it’s a personal choice.

I look forward to working with parents more in the future, and it would be interesting to see how it would be different if there were more tech-savvy parents in attendance. It would definitely change the tone and level of the discussions, but I worry that the parents with less experience would be apprehensive about asking questions in that environment.

You can see the resources from the workshop on the Parent Workshop wiki.

1) Add me to your del.icio.us network – I’m kolson29. I tag everything worthwhile that I read, but I have to warn you that my tagging needs work. I plan to tackle that soon, I promise!  You can also add my del.icio.us feed to your aggregator.

2) Follow me on twitter – kolson29. I tweet many of the articles that I’m reading or resources that I find. If for some crazy reason you think I have REALLY great stuff to say or resources to share, you could do a tweetscan for kolson29. I’d be honored

3) I am constantly updating my Parent Workshop wiki with links to social networking resources. I just added a section for educational uses of social networking. Right now the wiki is geared toward the sessions I’m leading at my middle school, but after that I plan to just keep adding to it for interested educators and parents. Please request to join if you think you have great stuff to share! If you are interested in just finding out about the new stuff when it’s added, you can create a wikispaces account and then visit the space-wide notification page to sign up for email notification of changes. If you don’t want to create an account, you can visit the notification page linked above and grab one of the feeds for your aggregator.

4) If you want to contact me, you can email me at kolson29@gmail.com or through the contact form on the About page on this blog.

I’m always looking for resources, so if you are on del.icio.us, add me to your network (see above) and tag links for me – I’d love you for it! Many of the resources I use for blog posts, in my courses, or on my wiki are from members of my PLN – thanks to you all