Going to keep this short because I only have 2 hours to check out all my wikis so I don't want to spend all my time yacking on here. I'll talk on here another time, i want to spend mucho time on the wikis so the students know I'm serious about it.
Some short points: I have ALMOST all my students fill out the survey form. A couple didn't. Boo.
PBWiki has lots of cool toys but I found that many have ad links for stupid spam MySpace crap sites. I emailed them and they apologized but said it's the deal they have with the widget people. So that sucks. I talked to all my classes about it and my kids have found ways to put the chat program on the site without ads (I have some crackerjack future hackers). The chat program is ONLY for everyone who is currently logged on PBWIKI so they can talk if they're on. It's good so far.
Same thing with music. They have dumb ads. But my @#$()*& kids have figured out a way to put music on without ads. God bless them.
This week each class went over what kinds of things I need to look for when I grade these. As something new, and because I got into a great discussion with my AP out the merits of rubrics (she hates them and thinks they're one reason our kids only strive for mediocrity), I decided we're going to come up with what everyone needs to do the BARE minimum. The rubric will be for a 70 (C-). i.e. this is what you need to have on your wiki to barely pass. I'll keep you posted on that one.
I have it set up so that I get updates on the hour. I have it piped into my special Outlook folder. It's so coool. I want to hug PBWiki. So far I would say 70-80 percent of my students play with their wikis at least once a day.
Kids are doing what I asked them to do this week: get on, play around with it, and get in contact with the other students in their civilization. EVERY STUDENT HAS DONE THIS.
I set up a helper elf chart on front page today and asked those HTML students who want to volunteer to help with the little things (background colors, videos, etc) can sign up so everyone knows who the experts are. This is the smartest thing I've done thus far.
I am extremely and absolutely happy with the way things are going so far. I'm going to wait a week before I give YOU the link. Some are almost viewer-worthy, most are still in their infancy stage.
Bye bye bye!
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2 comments:
okay you guys are on the ball....well done reece and john. Thanks for your comments. I am sorry I am a bit behind , my aunt was here visiting for chinese new year, but left this morning so I am back in action.
I will read this weekend and respond with some more thoughtful responses.
In the meanwhile, reece...I did not do a pre-survey..sounds like that would have been a good idea. I introduced my students to wetpaint at the start of the year thinking that it would make life easier to figure out all the problems.
John.....yes I too have been wondering how the heck to grade on the wiki. I start a discussion thread to give them feedback but thinking that I should email them the grade or do the old fashion thing and put it on paper. The kids have also been giving each other feedback so that is neat. You asked for the wiki site http://leporescience.wetpaint.com/?zone=freshcoat__3&t=anon
check it out when you have time.
Wow John, sounds like things are going great! Glad to hear the kids are switched on even helping make the entire project better for all. Can't wait to see some examples. Using the students is definetley the right decision...they know more than we do about this kind of stuff.
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