I guess I'm still not as excited about Wikis as I am Blogs... in terms of what I think I will use in my classroom. Blogs seem a little more user-friendly, and more concrete for little 5th grade minds that struggle with anything abstract.
However, I did find some really cool wiki's that I could use for my own benefit. The first was the Eduwiki.us Project which is essentially a giant collaboration of teachers sharing ideas. There's even a page specifically for 5th grade teachers. I like it because it's really straight-forward and practical.
Another wiki that caught my eye was Kids-Book-Club which provides an online forum for students to write book reports on the books they're reading. I actually thought this wiki was a great concept, but not fully executed/useful. The books that are listed are a bit below the reading levels of my students, and there isn't a large selection of them. However, I really like this idea to "borrow" and may try to set up a wiki of my own for the same type of idea!
I think these wikis, much like the blogs I added to my PLN, are both very practical and could benefit my classroom.
I agree that blogs seem more user friendly. I was thinking that blogs are more like a conversation while wikis require more collaboration to contribute to the finished product.
ReplyDeleteIf you do start that book review wiki, think about how you might get students from other schools involved. Maybe your professional organization (or your librarian's professional organization) would provide a good way to connect with others classrooms.
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