Last week things finally started coming together. All 22 students have selected their characters for their writing assignment, they looked at examples of what they need to do for their wikis and everyone has set up their own wiki space on www.pbwiki.com I've also gotten final confirmation from a school in the USA who is going to participate which means once Concordia International School commits, I'll have all my ducks in a row.
I also submitted my tip to the "creative teaching grant" committee at my school and it has been accepted which is great because it means I'll be given some time to introduce the project at the next staff meeting which should include over 100 teachers. If I can generate even a little interest among the staff, this should help to get the students excited about the idea of writing for an actual audience which is a key component to my research.
All I have to do now is hope that pwwiki isn't blocked by the Great FireWall of China!
As for the projects themselves, who knows. The students start writing this week but it's totally up to them to do the job well, poorly or at all since I'm trying to measure intrinsic motivation.
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Wil's in Tokyo this week for a conference, but I told him to post something so we can all comment. He IS starting his kids off on their blogs. Yay.
Outstanding news on your end. So those faculty who want to participate can access the PBWiki site and read your kids' work? I like that idea. I may steal another thing (this makes two things I've stolen from you. IOU and all that) from you.
If PBWiki is blocked, you can make a great case for opening it up. You'll be doing the EDUCATIONAL version which means it's completely shut off to anyone else. And each student will have their own password via an email from PBWiki.
I upgraded to the silver membership for that last reason.
There is one negative I've found to PBWiki. SOme of the fun addons like a chat program--there are ads for friendfinder on it. I screamed bloody murder to PBWiki and they said they're working on it. In the meantime there's another chat program with no links to outside sites. So my kids are using that.
But JUST TODAY I saw one wiki that had music on it. I was happy with that and I have no problem with it. But on the little widget there's a hyperlink to some crapity crap crap thing. So I told the student to take it off.
Basically, it's a locked and sealed wiki system, but some of their cutesy programs have spam attached to it. And upgrading to the HIGHEST one won't change it.
I think it'll be small beans though. Still beats my Sharepoint wiki.
Keep me posted, Reece. And can I take a look at your wiki? (once it's up and going I mean)
Hiho again, Reece. Are you going to do posting along with the students? I decided I'm going to do a little wiki civilization of my own (I thought it up as I was sitting in my classroom from 2:30-4:30 today...watching the detention kids haha).
I think my kids will appreciate and contribute more if they see the teacher doing the same kind of work that they're doing. I guess it's like the military--folks respect the officer who is down in the trenches with them.
But I don't know how that'd work with yours. I don't think it would!
Anyway, just stopping by to say howdy howdy howdy.
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.
Hey John,
I'll send you the link to my wiki when it's a little more complete. I had thought about doing the project with the students because I agree, it's best to demo but the due to the nature of this assignment I'm not sure it would have worked. Thankfully, however, I did have some examples that were similar to what I was looking for from a flat stanley project. I also used an episode of the amazing race and finally had a high school student put together a mock intro for the project. It was enough to get the kids excited at both the elementary and middle school level so I hope that's enough.
Let me know how you like the "silver" version of pbwiki. I thought about paying for it but decided I'd try the free version first to figure out if it's worth the money.
Grading the wiki...that's a tough one. It's in part why I decided to look at intrinsic motivation so that I wouldn't have to worry about grading. However, during my informal assessment, I'll use the 6 traits of writing to assess whether or not the students worked harder using the wikis rather than traditional methods. Does that make sense? The next step in my research (if I were to continue it) would be to grade the wikis in a similar fashion to traditional assignments.
Great proposal Reece. You have given me loads of ideas. I like how you are collecting the quantitative data. I wish I would have had a pre-survey,
It must have been a great deal of work to get various schools onboard. Something like this would be great at my school since there are over 200 students just in one grade. I did try to get our LA teacher on board with you...but she gets a bit overwhelmed.
I am wondering how do you monitor how much the students have contributed. Is there an easy way to do this?
Reece,
your pre and post survey about writing is a great idea...so much that I feel I have messed up my project. I did not give a pre survey about how students felt about writing group lab reports. I will only have a post survey to work with.
however, I have changed my survey questions. I have included some of the questions you and John have written and hoping we can all compare some of the data.
I will repost my TIP. At the end of the proposal notice the new questions. Let me know what you think.
I hope that this survey will give me enough data to make some conclusions about using a wiki to complete group work.
Hey Paula,
In answer to your questions;
I am wondering how do you monitor how much the students have contributed. Is there an easy way to do this?
YES: I'm using google reader (rss agrigator) so it tells me when changes/add-ons have been made, numbers how many changes and even shows me the exact changes within the preview window.
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