Wikis

MAKE MAKE YOUR WIKI INTERACTIVE

A great free website for making your wikis look more interactive [|Wix]
It is as simple as making your design then embedding your design as a widget. You can make your design as big or as small as you want. Have a play! You can read more of what I now know about wikis by scrolling down. ||
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 * || Please click on the play button to hear a snippet of Angela's wiki learning journey

Wiki Focus Group
Are you interested in joining this focus group? Put your name and contact details below.
 * =Name= || =School= || =email= || =Phone= ||
 * Elizabeth Ashton || Dromana PS || ashton.elizabeth.ea@edumail.vic.gov.au || 0359 87 2367 ||
 * //Justine Beagley// || //Tootgarook PS// || beagley.justine.j@edumail.vic.gov.au || 0359852864 ||
 * Scott Duncan || Aldercourt PS || duncan.scott.s@edumail.vic.gov.au || 9786 4488 ||
 * Justin Whelan || Overport PS || jwhelan@overport-ps.vic.edu.au || 9783 8777 ||
 * Nina Davis || Kunyung PS || davis.nina.a@edumail.vic.gov.au || 9787 6102 ||

The steering group will be developing and getting this wiki up and running. Wikis have great application in school based settings in classrooms and networking teachers together. If you would like to explore this further, share ideas and learn more please forward your interest and we will add you to our wiki focus group.

**So what exactly is a wiki?**
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__Check these wikis out-:__ ICT Toolkit wiki Web 2 Interactives []
 * Wikis focused on use of web2.0 tools**

http://elearningnorthland.wikispaces.com/ http://vels.wikispaces.com/
 * Wikis set up to facilitate network collaboration**

http://schoolyardblitz.wikispaces.com/ http://classroombraids.wikispaces.com/ http://collaborativetales.wikispaces.com/
 * Classroom Wiki examples**

** USAGE OF A GRADE WIKI **
I'm a Primary School teacher and have created a WIKI for my 3/4 class to use. Our WIKI has been powerful as a collaboration tool and useful in critical thinking for students to use.

The good thing about this space is that you're able to add pages on seperate pages. In our WIKI I can add and subtract pages as we use them. Some of the pages I have at the moment are; __MATHS AND ENDGLISH__ - In this area there's links to websites that students can use plus extra work students can complete (home or school). __SZEMERE SUPERSTARS__ - I give out weekly rewards, on the Wiki I'm able to acknowledge those students and write why they were awarded. __INQUIRY LEARNING__ - This area is great for students to do their own exploration. They can direct their own learning. __HOMEWORK CHAT__ - Discussion about weekly homework tasks plus projects. Students have tended to feed off eachother in this section. __PUBLISHED WORK__ - Student's each have their own page. Here students upload work that they would like others to view. This can viewed on any computer at school or at home. Students are able to pass on their username and password to family where they can see what's happening. For example I had a student in my grade whereby theit Grandma in Germany hadn't seen anything by their grand daughter, so by having access to our WIKI she could see work done by her grand daughter. __SCIENCE__ - Students in my class have a lot of interest in science, here we can discuss topics and students can drive a lot of what I teach. I upload videos from youtube and teachertube that reinforces what was taught.

I must also mention that this WIKI is totaly secured. As the adminstrator I invited my students via email, then they created a username and password. Only those students who have a username and passwork can access the WIKI.

If you would like to view my wiki, feel free to email me and I will invite you.

All the best Laura Szemere

=What I now know after establishing a class wiki with my Grade 2 =
 * The wiki is a collaborative website and students naturally use it as such. As well as teacher-directed collaborative efforts, incidental questions asked on our wiki have included: 'Help. How do I add photos?' 'Which is the best website for sounds?' 'How do I add a background to my Pivot?'
 * Wiki rules established from the beginning were: Type in a hyphen & your name after every comment. Be careful when we type about someone else. We've since established other rules and added an 'Our Wiki Rules' page. Wikis are a great step-off point for 'Values' and 'Cyber Safety' lessons. I've recently added a scrolling banner which states: 'Be Cybersmart and think before you type'.
 * Keep one's classwiki exciting by constantly adding to it. We began with 4 pages. I asked my students what pages they wanted. The suggestions were 'Funny Jokes', 'Cool websites' and a 'Did you know?' page. I also set up a 'Home Learning' page, on which I uploaded their Home work & hints. I then added the words & songs for our School Concert so they could sing along & practise at home. After learning about Pivot, we added a 'Pivot' page (we needed to discuss the need for non-violent 'Pivots', which led to the birth of 'meditating' & 'magic' Pivots). We added a couple more pages (I held off individual student pages for a while to keep the excitement factor going).
 * The teacher, grade level & students do play a part in the success of the wiki and we're all learning constantly. What I like is that the teacher doesn't need to be an expert, just interested & willing to experiment.
 * As well as being willing to experiment, I'm also learning to be discerning with what to leave on for lengthy periods. Widgets are fun, as are photos, however care needs to be taken so that pages can load up in a user friendly 'time frame' ie finding a balance between learning & keeping new & interesting Tools rotating and keeping the Wiki site fun & 'snappy'.
 * Throughout the year our learning developed. We learnt about different programs & websites, and uploading & embedding them ie Word files, sounds & music, PDF files, Wordles, Glogsters, talking avatars etc. Our favourite website (widget) at the moment is []

I'm enjoying my eLearning journey and I hope you are too Angela Sorbara