I have a district home page so in a sense I work with a Wiki every day at school. We just made the switch from First Class to Google Sites this summer so my page is still in flux. Previously on my home page I kept contact info, my class schedule, description of all my classes, homework page for my freshmen, a few pictures, links to pertinent resources etc. I don't have it all together yet, but feel free to check out my homepage. https://sites.google.com/a/msad51.org/katie-dexter/
I purposely didn't use my sandbox page in an organized way, but rather as an opportunity to experiment with different types of links, files, and widgets. I'm afraid my school web page will not be as user-friendly as this was. I have one colleagues who has a Wiki page that he uses every day rather than the school-provided web page. It's quite elaborate with lots of bells and whistles, but he has certainly had his fair share of challenges, namely students cheating by copying and pasting other students' classwork in the wiki and calling it their own. I know that by the end of the year after he had dealt with multiple cases of cheating, he was reconsidering using the Wiki for sharing notes. I'm sure there must be a way to manage the cheating, but it needs to be quick and easy when you have close to a hundred students to monitor.
The most popular place on my homepage is the homework link for my freshmen. It probably gets the most traffic by parents, students, and other faculty members (namely special ed teachers or the Learning Center teacher). Now I'm thinking a Wiki page could do so much more than just list the homework assignments for my three freshmen classes. I could have them visit certain sites, watch videos, blog, conduct and share research, etc as part of the Wiki. There's so much!
This class (as well as the other technology class I took) have given me a lot to process. I need to start with baby-steps otherwise I will become overwhelmed and shut down. I am grateful for the opportunity to complete this technology work in the summer. If I were trying to take this class during the school year, I never would have been able to give it my full attention because I would have been too busy with planning lessons and assessing student work.
I like the idea of using a wiki page with my students, and I am considering organizing a better space for my freshmen classes as my final project. We'll see...
https://sites.google.com/a/msad51.org/katie-dexter/
I purposely didn't use my sandbox page in an organized way, but rather as an opportunity to experiment with different types of links, files, and widgets. I'm afraid my school web page will not be as user-friendly as this was. I have one colleagues who has a Wiki page that he uses every day rather than the school-provided web page. It's quite elaborate with lots of bells and whistles, but he has certainly had his fair share of challenges, namely students cheating by copying and pasting other students' classwork in the wiki and calling it their own. I know that by the end of the year after he had dealt with multiple cases of cheating, he was reconsidering using the Wiki for sharing notes. I'm sure there must be a way to manage the cheating, but it needs to be quick and easy when you have close to a hundred students to monitor.
The most popular place on my homepage is the homework link for my freshmen. It probably gets the most traffic by parents, students, and other faculty members (namely special ed teachers or the Learning Center teacher). Now I'm thinking a Wiki page could do so much more than just list the homework assignments for my three freshmen classes. I could have them visit certain sites, watch videos, blog, conduct and share research, etc as part of the Wiki. There's so much!
This class (as well as the other technology class I took) have given me a lot to process. I need to start with baby-steps otherwise I will become overwhelmed and shut down. I am grateful for the opportunity to complete this technology work in the summer. If I were trying to take this class during the school year, I never would have been able to give it my full attention because I would have been too busy with planning lessons and assessing student work.
I like the idea of using a wiki page with my students, and I am considering organizing a better space for my freshmen classes as my final project. We'll see...