According
to “CoolCatTeacher” effective Wiki's contain the following seven
elements: a collaborative effort, visual appeal, organization,
hyperlinks to sources, original, intelligent wording, multi-sensory
tools, and RSS Feeds. I will use those elements to evaluate the
following wikis:
The
first I have chosen to evaluate is from a primary classroom with
activities regarding the reading of “My Side of the Mountain” by
Jean Craighead George. The purpose of the wiki is to walk the
students through the required reading. The wiki is from Mrs.
Dearolph's reading class at Woodward Academy. Here is the link:
http://mysideofthemountain.wikispaces.com/.
Following the wiki evaluation criteria I
believe this wiki is pulling in many of the aspects required. The
wiki has different students from the class working on the page.
The students are posting writings, games, videos, and summaries of
their readings. The wiki included collaborative efforts, visual
appeal, organization, and original wording. However, I did not see
any multi-sensory tools or RSS feeds. I think for an elementary
classroom, this wiki is a great project for the students. Students
were able to post original work and see the work of their classmates.
The
second wiki evaluated is documenting the reading of "The Wright 3" by
Blue Balliett. The purpose of this wiki is to aid in the reading of
the book. Although the wiki does not mention the school or age group, through the assignments and wording, I believe it is for a secondary classroom. The wiki contains summaries of different sections in the book and bibliographies of the characters. According to the site,
students were assigned specific pages to edit regarding their
project. The wiki is collaborative, organized, uses original wording
and has hyperlinks to many sources. However, there was very little
visual appeal, no multi-sensory tools and no RSS Feeds.
I
think both wikis, although very different, met the purpose of the
classroom project. I was more impressed with the first wiki, because
it included voice recordings that students created when interviewing
their parents. I think the second wiki should have been developed
with more creativity, allowing student choice in demonstrating their understanding of the content.
It is a small world! I also evaluated "The Wright 3" wiki. I like the idea of the wiki, but like you said, it offers little options for creativity. Students could show their understanding of the sections in so many interesting ways - a digital story or popplet to name a few.
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