Thing # 8

Do I think there may be a WIKI in my future???? Hmmm - maybe so. After reading Vicki Davis' blog I think I can certainly do one. I just have to make the time to get it done. I'm very interested. I absolutely loved the kindergarten counting book. I remember when I taught 1st grade and on the 100th day of school the students brought their posters of 100 things. We could have done WIKI slide show like they did. That seemed plenty easy enough. It would also be a cool way to share with the rest of the school and the parents on the school website.
I also fell in love with the Salute to Seuss Wiki project. I watched/listened to the kids reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Green Eggs and Ham". That is one WIKI I think I will begin with by having my students read the page of the book they illustrate to have a collaborative book reading. I teach students who have dyslexia and it is always amazing to me to see where they started out and what they are able to accomplish and overcome. The read-aloud on WIKI would be so special for the parents to hear and see.
I read every word of the WIKI on School in the Past. I don't consider myself to be that "old school" but I could certainly identify with several of the things written on the WIKI. No computers, no cell phones, walked to school no matter the weather, no music class or art class, but we did get to go to gym. Things have changed.
I particularly was interested in the Code Blue WIKI. My 8th grade son would LOVE this WIKI. The way it was organized made it so easy to just click to links and read whatever interested you about the human body (especially the YUCKY body functions link that kids would enjoy) with great visuals and charts. That is almost better than a text book.
There were some WIKIS that I found disorganized and hard to find what they were trying to show. The ones that were obvious or I could just scroll or click a link were much easier for me, a rookie, to locate and read.
As a rookie, I'm not too sure what I would change or do different or better except hopefully make it visually enticing, easy to read, easy to follow with accessible links and very user friendly.
Another WIKI I read and enjoyed was the Thousands Project. That seemed easy enough. I might start with a WIKI like that where I just put a question and have people respond to the question. It doesn't have to be 1,000 responses though.
My question is if it is open for others to edit, how do you keep the original writings and know who edited what? I think there were some articles about that which I need to read further into. I did look at the 7 things to know about WIKIS and some of the other resources listed, but I'm sure it will make more sense to me once I get in there and dabble in it.
I have been on Wikipedia many times, so, it's nothing new to me. But, I will look up something and post my next blog about what I found.
So, it's off the WIKI world for me.
Vickie