Evolution of a Wiki Page (video)

Wikiproviders:

• Wikispaces
• PBWiki
• Wetpaint
• Mediawiki
• Socialtext
• Google Sites – This is what we are using

Here are a few great examples

Mr. Ozeni’s Rubber band project – PB wiki

Goomoodleikiog – Google Sites

AP World History Wiki – Wikispaces

Educational Origami – Wikispaces

Spanish Farb – Wikispaces

Cyberchickens – Wikispaces

More examples

Download

Link to the wiki site:  http://esettsummer2008.wetpaint.com/

How will you know if this site is helping your users reach the objectives you’ve defined for them?

Several things will let us know that the wiki is successful:

1.  If teachers not only create their teacher page, but nominate teachers for various awards that we will be given for achievement from the last year.  That will show that not only were teachers willing to share what they have done, but also that other teachers viewed the hard work that they put into creating the page in order to nominate them.

2.  If teachers are contributing to the post-breakout session brainstorming.  After each breakout session, teachers will work together to brainstorm how the content of the session could be useful in finding a use of technology that will help students interact with content at a higher level.  They will do this either through contributing to forum discussions that are set up on that page of the wiki, or they will be working together to add content to a wiki page where they will share ideas.

3.  If teachers are making use of the general space for posting questions, sharing ideas, etc.  Often individual teachers will show us something cool that they are doing or thinking of doing, and we are the only audience for that idea.  Now when they share an idea with us, we can encourage them to contribute to the wiki page to share their idea with others.

What tools (or combination of tools) will you use to support the site?

I will definitely be using a wiki provider.  I had planned to use pbwiki because of the comments option that would allow teachers to contribute to a wiki page simultaneously, but after checking out Wetpaint, I switched to that option.  In Wetpaint, you can do more than simply leave a comment on a page.  You can also create a discussion related to the content of the page.  I also was attracted by the very useful templates for creating a site and the more familiar structure of the page and associated tools.  The wiki is going to be especially useful for laying out the plan for our professional development and being a place of sharing becuase it is flexible and can easily be changed on the fly.  An important facet of our grant and training is that we don’t want to dictate the direction of training.  Instead we want teachers to let us know what would be most useful to them and provide professional development in that area.  So the wiki will be a great way to have a flexible environment for the schedule, resources, discussion, and sharing.

What customizations will you need to do to your site?

I will need to create the skeleton structure for the wiki.  That means laying out the schedule, setting up the pages that will be used, etc.  Then the presenters for each break out session will fine tune the pages for each session and teachers will fill out their pages.  Several plugins will be very important.  The first is the plugin that allows for the Google Presentation that will be used on the first day to be embedded within the page of the wiki related to the opening remarks.  Another plugin that I will use is a polling plugin that will allow the presenters to get data on what teachers would like to see in break out sessions.

Are you happy with how well it turned out?

Yes and no.  I like the overall look.  I think it will be easy to navigate and easy to use for teachers.  I also think that seeing a wiki used in professional development may spark ideas for teachers on how they could be used in the classroom (especially since they will be getting hands-on experience with it – not just viewing it).  Where I am disappointed is in the deficiencies of Wetpaint.  I would have liked to be able to edit in HTML mode to fine tune some things, but that feature isn’t available.  Also, I couldn’t figure out how to customize the navigation across the top or on the sidebar.  It looks like you have to take those as is.  That was disappointing.  I hope that may become an improvement in the future with Wetpaint.

GrandmaWillYouSingToMe?

What do you want users to be able to do when they visit this site?

They should be able to create a personal page that displays some of the best of what they have done in the last year in regard to integrating technology into their science curriculum.

They should be able to either comment on wiki pages or collaborate to create their own for each break out session (this may vary by the type of break out session and how much time is available to wrap up).

They should be able to contribute all together to a page that provides a list (by grade level) of great examples of how technology can be used to raise the bar on how students are thinking in science classrooms.

Is it a recurring effort, or a one-time project?

This would be used for one week of professional development.  If it is successful, it will likely be adopted for PD both small and large.  It will depend on the feedback that we get from the teachers on how helpful the wiki was.

Who are your users?

The wiki would be created for use during a week of professional development right before the beginning of the school year.  The professional development is for middle school science teachers who are part of a grant called ESETT (Enhancing Science Education Through Technology).  All of the teachers have a good deal of familiarity with technology, but are more familiar with computer applications than web applications (with the exception of Moodle) that are 2.0ish.  They frequently use the Moodle, Office Suite, ComicLife, Inspiration, iLife, the web, etc.

What do you want them to be able to do as a result of using your web site?

I want them to be able to do the following:

• Have a personal page where they will share some of the ways that they integrated technology into their curriculum that were most effective at getting student’s brains to work at a higher level.  They could post video, images, etc.  (These personal pages will be perused by others in order to nominate individuals for awards such as Rookie of the Year, King/Queen of Moodle, The Adventurer, etc.)
• A place for group reflection on breakout sessions. (Each break out session will have it’s own page in the wiki.  This is where the agenda will be posted with all of the resources, but groups will also work together to edit a page that offers suggestions on how the topic covered in the break out session could be useful to 6th, 7th, or 8th grade science.  Maybe instead of having a separate page, I will use PB wiki and have teachers post comments to the page.  How could it help raise the bar in student thinking and achievement?
• The wiki front page will have an agenda for the week and link to useful resources.

What have others done that is similar?

I have been to trainings and presentations where the wiki was used as the presentation tool and also as a resource for teachers in the training.  For example, Will Richardson uses his wiki for presentations and provides links to all of the resources he will use in his presentation.  Also, I have seen Mark Wagner do something similar in a training on PowerPoint.  But in both of these cases, I don’t think that participants were expected to contribute to the wiki.  In the wiki for our professional development, teachers would be participants in making the wiki meaningful.

What performance drivers might prevent them from learning with this tool? (skills/knowledge, motivation, environment, incentive)

Skills/Knoweldge – Although teachers are pretty tech savvy, wikis will be new to most of them.  However, since most of them are familiar with editing in Moodle, the interface will be similar.  Navigation will be the main problem.  I will need to make sure that the navigation bar is clear and will probably need to have links back to pages built into pages they navigate to.

Motivation – Motivation is often difficult in professional development.  Teachers are often full from all that they are responsible for and busy with.  They don’t need more poured in (especially if it is perceived as irrelevant or unhelpful with what they are concerned with).  I think that motivation will be enhanced given that the wiki will add another element of participation and activity to our PD.

Environment – I don’t think there should be any problem here.  We will be meeting in our brand new Edtech Offices that have an excellent set up for both hard wiring and wireless in the training room.  The teachers wil bring their own computers, and if they forget, they can borrow one from the department.

Who are your users?

The users of my final project will be any or all of the following:

• World War II veterans interested in sharing their story or reading about the stories of others
• The family of World War II veterans interested in sharing stories or reading about the stories of others
• My family – who will either be interested in reading the stories shared by our family members, adding their own memories related to the stories of our own family, or will be interested in reading what is shared by others

I don’t have any students currently, but I could see students using this site in order to see actual video of veterans years later reflecting on their experiences.

The users will vary quite a bit in regard to how computer savvy or web 2.0 savvy they are.  The majority are likely to be fairly unfamiliar with computers and web 2.0.  It may be important to have explicit directions for how to post or add content.

What do you want them to be able to do as a result of using your web site?

I want them to be able to read and share stories that are related to World War II.  I want the page to be an archive of memories.  I also want them to be able to comment on the stories of others.

What have others done that is similar?

I know there are many sites where people have shared the stories of their own family or information about World War II.  Most are static web pages.  Here’s a blog that has World War II events by day.  Here’s another one that has World War II resources.  Here’s a podcast of veteran memories from PBS.

None that I have found are vodcasts uploaded to a blog for user comments that tell the story of veterans, at least not yet.

What performance drivers might prevent them from learning with this tool? (skills/knowledge, motivation, environment, incentive)

My experience with blogs, wikis, and podcasts is limited, but I’ve got some experience with each.  I’ve had several blogs but none that I’ve kept up with.  I think if I had a classroom blog I would see a real value to keeping one up, but with my other blogs I don’t think I’ve had enough to say to keep posting (time is another factor).  I’ve got lots of experience with Moodle wikis but those are very limited compared to other providers like wikispaces and pbwiki.  I’ve definitely played with those and gotten to support teachers who’ve used them in their classrooms.  I made a Moodle Minute podcast last year, but unfortunately I only made about 5 episodes and then got too busy to keep it up.  Here’s a link to the Moodle tutorials page where you can subscribe to it http://moodle.sandi.net/course/view.php?id=1192 – you have to scroll down until you see the cow picture.  In order to learn about things and also to have fun I’ve subscribed to lots of podcasts.  I love Ask a Ninja.  I also subscribed to Coffee Talk Spanish to try to learn Spanish on my commute, but I alwyays felt silly talking to myself in Spanish while I drove.

For my final project what I would like to do is set up a blog with a video podcast to complement the website that I started in 541.  I made a website about World War II that I never had a chance to finish because it involved interviewing some of my family about their experiences in World War II on video and then posting the video.  I had been trying to do it through flash but it was very time consuming.  I think it would be awesome to post the videos to a blog so that people can leave comments.  I think it might also be cool to have a companion wiki sight so that if other people have war experiences they have to share, they could create a page in a wiki.  Here’s the link to the website I made:  http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~beezley/worldwar2/intro.htm and you can see that the video is conspicuously absent and the sight is incomplete.