Thing #15

Well, that was a lot of information about Wikis! Where do I start? I have previously declared my love for Wikipedia on one of our class discussion questions. Wikipedia has provided information to my family on topics such as who starred in the movie "Blah Blah", which campus is larger Penn State or UT Knoxville, and where did the city of  "Blah" get its name? Although this information may not be the most accurate, on such topics we are willing to accept the feelings and beliefs of the majority!

The best part of wiki, in general, is the fact that the "audience" for the post can also be editor and contributor. As was stated in the information found in Thing #15, the element of collaboration is the wiki's best feature and quite possibly its worst enemy. When I posted on apsu23thingssandbox, I couldn't resist editing a word in the post that followed mine. I'd like to say that it was the teacher in me that made me do it. Unfortunately, I might have done it just because I have the power to do so! :)  While working on #15, I also made a slide show on Sliceshow.com which offers many features for customizing your slide show. The uploading of the pictures for the slideshow was also easy and fast.

I think designing your own wiki to share ideas with other teachers of the same subject and grade level could be very interesting and beneficial. I suppose the best way to start would be inviting those who are in your school and your school district first. Then, I'd probably check out the highest performing schools in the state and attempt to invite some of those teachers as well. That being said, if I were contacted by someone outside my district, I would probably be skeptical and would probably not join or contribute.

I also set up a family wiki using Wikispaces.com. It was simple to set up, invite guests, and get started. I'll share the address in this blog as soon as I can be sure that my family is being cooperative, appropriate, mannerly, and won't embarrass me!  I'm sure that they'll control themselves, but....just to be safe, I'll wait.

Here's the link to my family wiki:

http://macwiki5.wikispaces.com/

They seem to be afraid to make any entries! :)