Collaborative digital literacy project 2012 So What’s a wiki?

The (not) missing links www.wikispaces.com www.wikipedia.com www.wikihow.com

What your wiki must include One ‘home’ page tying together your wiki theme (introduction, table of contents, compilers’ names etc.) At least five pages: home page and 4 more linked pages. One embedded video (Youtube or other) - widget Links in a table of contents on your home page to each other page Links to at least 3 external websites that have additional resources.

Set up Check for emailed invitation and follow links to sign up. Create a username that is either your name and surname, or name and student number. Explore the wiki and watch the ‘getting started’ videos to orientate yourself. Start experimenting! Decide on your purpose and theme and brainstorm…

Choose a grade and topic and use your wiki as a teaching tool! Examples: Teaching grade 10s about weather patterns (Geography) A learning resource and support centre for students on HIV/AIDS. An interactive project for use in class in which students solve Geometry problems. A creative writing project where your grade 10s create a graphic novel using a sequence of photographs. The grade 9s are creating a contemporary parody of Romeo and Juliet, or their own school diaries in response to Spud. …..

Substantial content, well edited This is what I will be looking for: proof of digital literacy (using technology as a communication tool for teaching and learning in English) You need to think about layout, readability and ease of use (links, widgets, clear labels etc.) Randomly dumped or cut-and-pasted media is not the same as a good wiki any more than it is a good essay.

Apply the Think and Check strategy to your own wiki:

Edit and proof read Check spelling and grammar, as well as consistent, appropriate register. Make sure the look and feel of the page and the content are appropriate to high school learners. Click on links to make sure they work (and play videos and/or MP3s). Make sure linked pages and external links open as a separate page (check your usability). Make sure links are grammatically part of the sentence they appear in. Acknowledge sources (as this is a private site, you do not need to worry too much about copyrighted images, but get into good habits) In real life, there is nothing more public in terms of your professional profile!

From here, it’s up to you! The wiki can be a teaching tool, full of interesting content and resources for learners to explore… It can be the start of a collaborative project…. …or an educational game or two… The sky really is the limit!

begging, borrowing and stealing… Use the ‘help’ function, but don’t forget to ask your classmates or lecturer. Watch how-to videos on YouTube, and Google award-winning educational wikis for ideas. If you see a successful page emerging, contact the group that set it up to ask how they did it. You can embed word documents and other files in their original size, shrink or enlarge them or add them as links , widgets or badges Try to find copyright-free images (there are sites offering links to free resources for teachers within subject fields e.g. History archive photographs, creative commons, etc.).

ethics No photographs or names and contact information of children or other uninformed persons. Only pictures of yourselves and information you do not mind being available to your class.

Hot tips When embedding links to external websites (such as my link to Philip Gross and Lesley Beake’s home pages) – make sure you mark that it should open as a ‘new window’ or when you close it, you will close internet explorer too. Use the ‘widgets’ button to embed media and the ‘embed’ function of ‘share’ on YouTube and groovyshark (MP3s). Use or create templates for pages and sub-pages to avoid too much formatting work and to keep a good overall ‘feel’ to the site.

Collaborative learning Learn from each other and from other teachers around the world. Benchmark yourselves against the best out there!

Productivity As the wiki is created and edited on-line, you can work anywhere with the internet as often as you like. You can potentially use another subject’s project – expand it to make it multimedia to use the wiki format to its full potential

deadlines Wiki page sign up – today in class or by Friday 12 October. First pages – even if rough ‘work in progress’ – next week 17 October for class review. The final deadline for your completed wiki project is Wednesday 24 October . Your exam is 13 November so we’d like to give you feedback at least a week before.

The exam A copy of a wiki’s pages will be provided and you will be asked to write a mastery statement comparing it to your own wiki, evaluating both as digital literacy learning tools and as in your previous exam, discussing the challenges presented by the wikis in terms of digital literacy requirements.

Good luck!  I can’t wait to see what you come up with!