An Active Classroom Wiki
Capricious Westbrook, a sixth grade teacher at Downtown Elementary, has a classroom wiki going that I feel is a great example of what a wiki can do for a classroom.
What it has become is a central “off campus” hub for the teacher and her students to communicate, share resources, and basically extend the classroom to home. This is the power of a wiki, transforming a static, teacher controlled classroom website into a collaborative online community. When the students have access to add content, start discussions, and leave comments, there is more for them to invest in, and it seems to be fairly active with students who have internet access at home. It’s easy to tell by browsing the different pages and discussions that teacher and students stay connected outside of the classroom through the wiki and other online resources. For example, Mrs. Westbrook posts transcripts of Chatzy sessions where she answers questions about assignments and students give peer assistance. This is a great way to help students when they are working on the assignments at home. In this case, students were working on a thesis and were able to discuss how they went about brainstorming, citing sources, and coming up with their thesis statements.
It’s very motivating to see such an interactive classroom website. When the students are active online with their classmates and teacher, discussing school topics, the school day is extended for sure. Additionally, the students are participating in the maintenance of the wiki and are using many web 2.0 skills.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Capricious is doing a great job on the wiki – I love it!! I hope she is presenting this at the Tech Conference.