Thing 17: Wikis

The wikis I looked at were mostly geared toward student projects and therefore started with a lesson-plan type of opening page, which sometimes indicated expectations or components of the project for which the wiki was built. I liked this format because it immediately gave me a sense of what the wiki was about and where the information on it came from. My understanding, then, is that you have to join the wiki in order to add content? One of them, the Great Debate 2008 wiki, was intriguing because I saw a connection between it and the multigenre project that the 8th graders are working on. 8th grade students have chosen a global issue related to the environment, and they have been researching it in order to prepare a speech, a paper, a virtual museum and other products that reflect their understanding of the issue. The Great Debate wiki, or something like it, might be a great avenue for them to take their products global and see what kinds of responses they might get. (Actually, multigenre has come to mind a lot when I've been exploring Web 2.0. There must be a way to determine what applications or wikis or mash-ups, etc. would be most useful, efficient, and inspiring for the students to use.)

Anyway, I liked the idea of the Great Debate wiki, and I also found that the Discovery Utopias site related to my students' study of The Giver. While I don't think I would want to spend too much time having students literally create a utopia the way students have for Discovery Utopia, it might be helpful for them to see connections and explore ways that other students have applied their knowledge of the story.

Thing 16: Widgets

I didn't think I would appreciate Widgets, but it turns out I think they are an easy way to add personality and interactivity to a blog. I chose to add a picture of a recent weekend up north with a caption explaining the snow family we created. And then I also added a poll about Springtime. These tools appear to be unique ways to get readers engaged in the blog as well as opportunities for them to get to know the blogger a bit more. Readers can see from my blog that, while there are some things I enjoy about winter (i.e. playing in the snow), I am also excited about Spring (hence the poll). I could also post a poll for my students, I suppose, referring to a project in class or an upcoming assignment. Students could provide feedback here while they are using technology and experimenting with blogs. Adding these widgets was also very easy to do, which is always a good thing.