NECC06 - Day 2: Wikis in K12

More notes from on the fly from yesterday - Dan did a great job. All his stuff is linked at the web site.

Wikis in K12

Dan McDowell
danmcdowell@cox.net
West Hills High School, Grossmont Union HSD

NECC - San Diego July 6, 2006

http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/necc2006

What – easily editable web site
Everyone can edit it – if it is open, or at least by members
You can see the history of edits, who made the

***Part of Web 2.0
Blogs, podcasting, read/write web pages wiki
Facilitate collaboration

Wikipedia

Why students?
They already do it – they are already blogging on mySpace, Livejournal, Deadspace
All informal – bad grammar,

We have to harness what they are doing for good.
Kids are Digital natives
They are doing this stuff but not in ways that will help them in the working world

Wiki Engines –
Type 1 - Free/Hosted – make an account, and off you go. However you do not host the site.

Type 2 – Self Installed – Still Free but Mediawiki, Tikiwiki
$80/year to pay for your owm server space – you control.
Mediawiki – source of Wikipedia
Tikiwiki is a better choice for stuff – he started w/ Tikiwiki, tried Mediawiki, and went back

Logistics
Can the world see it? Open vs Closed
Need to regulate and keep students in check – you can give individual passwords.
Set up of logistics
If it is not password protected you can have it spammed or vandalized
District Network policies can come into play.

Wiki editing is simple – JOB AID pages

Wiki for staff development
Formal decision point

Bernie Dodge SDSU – Webquest Designs - template for making webquests
That has lead to: the same for Wikis:
Wiki Design Patterns Matrix
Micropedia
FAQ
Consensus Document
Branching Story – a story that
Tree Sim – teacher starts and students go on (Holocust project)
Ant Farms – decision trees for whole class
Exgesis – dissection of dense texts

Projects he has done w/ his kids
1) WWI Battles Wiki
2) AP World History Review - Micropedia format
a. Assigned groups to research questions wrote them up
b. Then had to go back VALIDATE two other groups.
c. A collection of essential questions and answers
3) Holocaust Wiki – Tree Sim /Ant Farm pattern
a. Assign a country
b. Create a family
c. Project include 12 major decision points for family (two choices)
d. Need to have a intersection point
e. Instance of resistance or rescue
f. And the decision point

In his classes HE pre-searches. He does not have time to have them Google, he sets up the sites

Create a Progression of events – Storyboard, a process chart. A map of this process.

WEBQUEST.ORG
QUESTGARDEN
All his stuff is on the web

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