Responses+July+18,19

=Myths= collaborative group project unreliable information



=Facts=


 * what distinguishes a Wiki from any other tool you have access to? "Why" do this anyway?
 * Collaborative group project

I think its hard to understand or imagine how wikis can be used before actually using the wiki in the classroom. We experimented with them in the seventh grade and, at first, there was mass chaos. There are, of couse, apprehensions in the world of "To Catch a Predator" when we hear that we are opened up to the entire Web. Kids started creating their own pages and doing things like rating each other and their teachers. A FEW wrote nasty things about some people (myself included). Because of the self-policing nature of wikispaces and because anyone-teachers, students- can view the pages, teachers found out about the comments almost immediately (mostly because students told teachers.) Ed held a community meeting about the wikis and what was appropriate and their resposibility. The few were spoken to. After that, there were incidents of inappropriate use (messaging in class, etc.) here and there but more frequently students took ownership of the privledge and policed their peers because they didn't want wikis to be blocked. They are eager and excited to use them in class.