Wiki Wiki!!

I love wikis! In "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms," Richardson discusses how wikis allow students to become more skilled collaborators, editors, publishers and communicators. Wikis afford students the opportunity to take the lead and manage the wiki. Teachers should be there to coach and ensure that all material is appropriate. Since wikis are on the internet, I have marked the wiki as private and work is completed in class.
My Spanish 2 students and I are using a wiki to put a little pizazz into our "giving directions and commands" unit. I love it! This is the first time I have used wikis in our ITS class and think it's a great way to keep putting the puzzle of content together! Wikis are very easy to manage and use. In groups, students are using the wiki pages to give advice to Spanish speaking tourists for traveling by specific means of transportation (i.e. plane, train, bus, etc.). Each group chose a font color and writes on the wiki pages in that color only. I think it's easiest to describe it as a "round robin wiki" to the students. They add two pieces of advice and one hyperlink to a helpful Spanish website on each page. Then, they return to the first mode of transportation for which they gave advice and will edit the work of their peers and set the layout for that page. When the "mother group" for that page adds graphics then, I know they have completed their page. My Spanish 3 students create PowerPoint presentations about Spanish speaking countries and will be able to connect their presentations to the transportation advice wiki. My students are expanding their knowledge and interest as they explore the wikis and PowerPoints. The wiki is making this a rich experience.

Si vas por avión...

I've read about wikis and how they are used in schools and in the professional world. In schools, wikis provide students with a meaningful way to navigate their way through class content and make cross curricular connections. Students can add links, reflections, files, presentations, audio and video to wikis. In the case of Spanish class, students will be writing in Spanish, editing, generating and discussing concepts and utilizing their language skills to communicate and collaborate with classmates and anyone else permitted to join the wiki. I would love to create a wiki with my friend's students in Honduras.

Professionals are already using wikis to organize and share work and ideas. They are collaborating as they work without having to schedule one specific meeting time. Thus, more people can participate consistently and keep the process moving forward. Using wikis will prepare our students to be stronger communicators in person and online!

Blogs and wikis...

¡Hola! This is my first blogging excursion so, I'm excited to see where it takes me! In addition to being an ITSer, I'm a Spanish language teacher. As I think about blogging and wikis as tools, I think of the 5 C's of foreign language learning.

-Communication-Culture-Connections

-Comparisons-Communities

So what? Well, I think that blogs and wikis will enhance my students' experiences in these five realms of language learning.

In general, I've been hesitant when people talk to me about using blogging and wikis as teaching tools. I know fabulous teachers who effectively and creatively use these tools. They communicate with students, other professionals and to connect themselves and their classes to their material, concepts and meaningful new resources and people who share their interests, questions, etc. I think it's great! So, why am I hesitant? I think it's a combination of my lack of experience with these tools and my hesitation to put myself and my students "out there" on the internet. The more I read and talk about blogging and using wikis, the more I like what I hear from students and my peers about how they use them as tools that spark thinking and spice up the process of turning concepts and information into meaningful knowledge that benefits learners both as students and as citizens!