Wikispaces

ALA sticks Wikispaces under the Content Collaboration heading with the following standards:

• 1.3.4 - Contribute to the exchange of ideas within a learning community.
• 3.1.2 - Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners.
• 3.1.4 - Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use and assess.

and the following comment:

"This is the quintessential collaborative tool! This easy-to-use website allows anyone to write, edit and share content, depending on the permissions granted by the wiki owner.
Tip: Students can use a wiki as a research journal, documenting their progress from beginning questions to finished products, as they receive feedback directly on the wiki from their classroom teacher and librarian."

I've found that all of that is true.

Wikispaces is a great tool to use for class collaborative projects or even in depth class websites if you need a cheap, easy way to make one without coding.  It's easy to sign up and wikis used for education get privacy and space for free.  Added bonus of being able to track who edits the site and when.

I used this a couple years ago when the 9th grade History classes were working on an Archaeology project that spanned a couple of months.  I created a main wiki for the assignment (here), with public settings, as well as a wiki for each civilization being researched.  Those were only viewable by the students in that group, their teacher, and me.  Each wiki had a collaboration page and a resource page to start with; the students added as needed.  After a couple of years the project ended but it's nice to have all of those wikis still available if it ever starts up again.

Unfortunately, the biggest drawback to Wikispaces I have found is that students are not already using it and so are resistant to yet another account they have to check and keep track of.  Now that other sites are being developed which are more teacher friendly, such as Haiku, I see Wikispaces disappearing.

Back at it! (Take 2)

Wow, that last post was an epic fail. Hopefully this one will be better.

To continue where I left of last time - looking at ALA's Best Websites for Teaching & Learning - I decided that it would be appropriate to start at the beginning of their archives (2009) and work my way forward. However, to save everyone from some boredom, I'll only be discussing those websites that I personally have seen used or think could be useful to advocate at my own school.

To keep myself on track I'm going to attempt to stick to the following schedule:

 1/28 - Wikispaces
1/31 - Animoto
2/4 - Wordle
2/7 - Facebook
2/11 - Goodreads
2/14 - Ning
2/18 - Skype
2/21 - Twitter
2/25 - Prezi
3/4 - International Children's Digital Library
3/7 - Storybird
3/11 - Evernote
3/14 - TED
3/18 - Edmodo
3/21 - Khan Academy
3/25 - Pinterest
4/15 - Discovery Education
4/18 - Library of Congress
4/22 - MIT Open Courseware
4/25 - WebQuest
4/29 - Google Earth
5/2 - Haiku
5/6 - ?
5/9 - ?

*One note of caution if you're reading from a public school perspective: I don't pay much, if any, attention to the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" that ALA provides in their analysis of the sites. I work at a private boarding school and while we have high standards and expectations for our educational environment, they are nowhere near as explicitly stated as they are in public education.*