Catching up….and wikis…
Back in April, just before we got to Easter, I took my first “vacation” of the school year. I took 4 whole days off to go to Italy! (Yes...the trip was longer than 4 days...count weekends and the holiday and it was about 10. You can even see photos here.) Today was the first day that I didn’t feel so far behind. I actually feel that I am on top of things, with only reading of blogs and some informational emails left. And I’ll get to that in due time...no hurry there.
We have been looking into Wikispaces and their Private Label pricing. We are on a 30 day trial. Last week, I worked with one of our middle school Social Studies teachers who was interested in using several wikis for her classes to prepare for an upcoming debate. Each class is divided into two groups - about 10 kids in each group. She wanted a private space (password protected) that only the members of the team could access. So this was a good time for me to to see what Wikispaces could do for us. I was able to set everything up for her as she requested. I think this will work out well for her, with the technology allowing her students to work collaboratively in ways they wouldn’t have before. This will be a good try-out for this tool.
Speaking of wikis...I was also involved in a discussion with our Assistant Superintendent and Mathematics Chair. I was pleased to see the transparency of these tools being discussed - the idea of wikis being used by teachers to share and critique lessons concerning particular district initiatives. There really seems to be momentum building for teachers to break out of working in isolation and communicating and interactiing with their colleagues to grow professionally. And they are seeing these tools for the potential they have. It’s nice to see!
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