So a teacher named Diane Albanese came up to me before a presentation I was giving at the Delaware Instructional Technology Conference this morning and handed me this business card. Her students were presenting in a showcase last night and were handing out these little puppies…even gave one to the Lt. Governor. Now how cool is that?
And the wiki is pretty darn cool.
This is the stuff I really love, when teachers and students just begin to make this a natural part of what they do in the classroom. They write. They collaborate. They publish.
Way to go Danielle, Kim, Kayla, Dalton, William, Brandon, Aaron and Mrs. Albanese! Wikimasters Rule! And we would love you to come in and comment on this post (as other students have recently done) and tell us all more about what you’re doing.
Go Wikis! Go!
Technorati Tags: wikis, education, schools Delaware
Go edublogs go too – ace 🙂
Awesome! I can’t wait until ours is that good! However, another road block in our district – this site can’t be accessed from school.
The Wikimasters in my class have taken the technology and made it their own. The litte green card with URL’s for the class wiki, blog and protopage represents our collaboration this year.They were so excited about being able to share what they had done at a conference that two weeks go they scrapped the first class wiki and created a new one and called it bliptop.
My favorite teacher, Pat Sine, told me that our job is to introduce the media and the materials to students and then get out of the way.
I agree.
I love writing, poetry, literature and I have for years but my students love videogames, social networking and sharing photos. So we come together in a happy union on wikis, blogs and protopages. Just who is the teacher and who is the student most of thet time I do not know but this is a great time to teach because everything in education is redefined.
When I received a cart of 30 laptops three years ago I knew that this would change everything but I just didn’t know where we were headed. I still don’t but I relish the journey.
This sounds like a wonderful, engaging activity and I applaud your enthusiasm. How do you get around restrictions, if any, imposed by your district’s MIS department?
I am Aaron off of Bliptop Wiki and I have to say that technology has greatly increased my learning ability because if you have missed a day off school you can go online and check what you have missed. On Monday’s we get our weekly Root Words and we put them up on Tuesdays we put them up and every one who was out can get them instead off missing work and getting the work during the day’s you are out or the day you come back when you are online you don’t have to miss out on school work.
Hi! I’m William from Mrs. Albanese’s class wikimasters. We wikimasters work almost every day and I thank you William Richardson for putting us on your blog. Fortunately for us, we have no restrictions from the MIS department that we know of. As my teacher said, some of the students enjoy video games, so I decided to make one of my own. It’s http://www.videogames.wikispaces.com. It’s filled with nothing but games that I enjoy. Lot’s of other kids have been trying to create their own wiki’s too. As for the protopages, it came out as a rage that matched how much people wanted the wiki.
My personal protopage is also http://www.protopage.com/bliptop. Mrs. Albanese and her wiki ideas have started a love of technology in me and it’s really exciting. With the help of my trusty sidekick flash drive, I’ve done blogs (though I still need some help and tips), protopages, wiki’s, I’ve done it all just for the fun of it, and I’m excited for the future of what I can do on the internet. You should check out the newly redone bliptop wiki at http://www.bliptop.wikispaces.com.
Im very glad that we learned about the Wiki because this has increased my knowlage on the internet and computer.
Jeremy
I really like the Protopage is really cool because I can look at the pictures of all of my friends. Also, because I did a Author Reasearch Project and some of my information about J.K. Rowling on it.
My name is Samantha, I am a student in Mrs.Albanece’s core 2 class. I think that the Protopage is the best and the easiest to work with. It’s also really fun to mess with. Your page is also very cool and creative.
I think that these wiki, protopage, and blogs help students get stuff done easly. You can show everyone how your school works and what you’ve learned. It is also a good way to see what people put as a comment or to see what they put as a answer. Its another way to get ideas.
I am one of Mrs. Albanese’s students and am currently working on something called SurveyMonkey. This is a tool that you can use to create your own surveys and send them in links or post them on a webpage like the wiki that you have up.
I am one of Mrs. Albanese’s students. I use blogs in class almost every day, and I think that they are helpful because us students get to read each others thoughts on different subjects. I have never used a protopage so I hope to use it in the future.
I am in Mrs. Albanese’s Core 2 Language Arts classand I believe that protopages are also really awsome! We spend a lot of time responding to Mrs. Albanese’s blogs and looking at the wiki and I must say its pretty awsome! Wikis are great ways to organize your memories of the year so far and allows everyone to see your memories.
I am a student in Mrs.Albaneses class and I must say I really like protopages. I think that protopages are a great way to do projects;for example I did a project on Emily Dickinson, the wedsite is http://www.protopage.com/emilydickinson.
Hi my name is Ian, from Mrs. Albanese’s class and the wiki has changed my school experience because it shows us what is happening all around our school that we may not know about. The kids that work on this page take this like it’s their life. You see them taking the pictures and writing comments and pages during classes just because they care about it so much. I hope they stick with it in the future.
Thank you for saying our wiki’s are cool! Mrs. Albanese put’s a lot of time in these wiki’s to give us a little ore time on the computer’s. thank you for your comment.
This year in Mrs. Albanese’s class we have been using websites in our class as class work. We have been using the wiki, protopage and bliptop. I like the idea of using websites as school work and instead of pencils and paper. Using this method has allowed me to learn more about technology. I believe I will use it in the future.
Hi, im Cheyenne, I am in Mrs. Albanese’s class. I read your blog and found it interesting so i decided to leave this comment. I think it’s important to have a blog page or some type of page like this for classes to comment on or update things on the page. Since we made our protopage and wiki our classes have bonded and got to know each other. We can put homework and assignments on the page incase we miss them. It is a great idea and im glad we have one!
Hi! My name is Stephanie…… I am one of the students in Mrs.Albanese class and i really enjoy the protopage. I am very happy that you learned about the protopage and i am very happy that you enjoyed it.
I don’t have any thoughts about bloging because I don’t do it all the time.
Hi! My name is Stephanie…… I am one of the students in Mrs.Albanese class and i really enjoy the protopage. If you dont have anything to do this would be the best website to go on.
This is Taylor im a student in Mrs. Albanese’s class. I think it is very fun to be able to do our class assignments on the internet. The Wiki has become very helpful to are class and school. I read the Blog you made about our school and found it very interesting.
I think that bloging could be okay sometimes.It depends on how your mood is or what your hobbbies are or even does it interest you. My hobbies are sports so im not the kind of person who stays in the house and blogs or on the computer all day.
Dear Will,
I am a student in Mrs. Albanese’s 8th grade class. I got to say she likes her technology. She got technology teacher of the year for our district.
The wiki and blog has changed my school work forever. We do all are work on the internet. A few weeks ago we did a book project (Book Review) on the blog. Now we are doing lessons on the blog.
Thank you for what you said about our school to the world.
What I think about the wiki? Well I think that the wiki is a complete waste of time because I don’t know what it is or what it’s used for. Everybody is talking about how interesting it is, but I haven’t found anything interesting about it at all.
Hi, my name is Shawniece and i’m in Mrs. Albanese’s class. My whole thing about the Wiki/Protopages is it’s good for the students that are interested in doing creative projects like this but i’m not a fan of it but it is definately a good idea and thank you to Mr.Will Richardson for commenting about our protopage!!!!
I really do not know to much about the Blog, but if it is interesting to others then that is fine for them. Computers are not my thing and its a waste of my time.
This idea of having Wikis, Protopages and online websites for school is awesome. I believe that it helps us in school a great bit. I made a Protopage for our class on C.S. Lewis, I have to say it was really fun for a project.
I’m already nearly an expert with a little thing called HTML and it was really fun being able to use my “skills” in school.
Seeing how fun blogging is from Mrs. Albinese I think I’ll make a blog of my own. I’m not sure what I’ll make it on though. Maybe school.
Hi! I am very pleased that you think our wikis are cool! Mrs. Albanese has taught us many great things. The wikis was one of the best things I have learned this year. Thank you Will Richardson for giving us recognition.
To me blogging is a very useful tool. I say that because blogging is a way for me to post what I am feeling about a certain topic. Not only does everyone get to see what I say but its also a way for eveyone to post what they are feeling too.
I am a student at Mrs. Albanese’s class, using these new technologies has really made me find out what is going on around school and outside of it too. It has made me see how to comment on-line and how to express myself online in a way that doesn’t expose myself.
Hey, I’m Brittany and Mrs. Albanese is my language arts teacher. We have blogs and wiki pages that help us express ourselves. They are also fun and it gets your mind thinking. I enjoy them very much and hope to make one of mine own someday.
I am a student in Mrs.Albanese’s class.I do not have a blog of my own,but I’ve seen my friends and I thinks its totaly cool.Shes gonna help me get one so I’ll try to make it asome.Also I think its a great way to make connections across the globe without being endanger of predators.
Hi I’m a student from Mrs. Albanese’s class, and I have learned so much from the wiki and the school blog. She has provided these so that we are able to express our feelings about things we are doing in school.
I am fascinated with wikis! I recently started wikis for the classes I teach in higher ed. I have been doing alot of research on the use of wikis in education. While I have found numerous examples of wikis in education, I have not been able to find any research on the effectiveness or learning outcomes of using a wiki as compared to other “traditional” ways of teaching/learning. Does anyone know of any research that has examined this?
Well done Wikimasters of Mrs Albanese’s class!
I am beaming with joy for what these students have embraced in this learning environment that Mrs. Albanese has created for her students. I have had the pleasure, behind the scenes, in working with these students, assisting with the technology as the instructional specialist with the same passions. Each and every one of them is so special to me for their enthusiasm and dedication to constructing their own learning, designing creative publications of their work, and finding solutions for challenges with these emerging technologies, like just how to link a podcast in a wiki or how to link to anchors on a page. What amazes me is that in all of this- the focus has NOT been the technology, but the focus IS their content!
Mrs. Roe is cheering on the sidelines, so proud of all of you!!!!
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As far as the “research” and comparison with “traditional” ways of teaching. My feeling is that if we wait for the research to prove what we are experiencing as true, we miss the opportunities. Just several years ago, we all were looking for the research to support that technology enhances learning and improves academic acheivement and for case studies to justify purchases… Today it is overwhelmingly so.
Just ask Will – he will tell you that he has learned far more in the six years he’s been blogging, compared to the ? number of years he studied traditionally. That’s just one case in point. I’ll second this and know others who will wholeheartedly agree. Has it been documented and statistically tallied? …probably not yet, because it evolves so fast.
I’ll leave that to people in the Metiri group. I think we are all to busy keeping up with the excitement for learning!
Thanks, Will for recognizing and highlighting these students and their teacher. Blog on!
Congratulations on all the hard work Diane and kids,….
Targeting the audience and working to get their buyin requires new methods, and fresh ideas. Thanks for the inspiration!
Great stuff!! Will, you visited my school, Lovett in Atlanta, a while ago but I was home due to the birth of my son, sorry I missed it. My classes have been podcasting, using wikis and blogs this year and it has been an amazing experience!
http://mrmorrison.pbwiki.com/
To compliment our wiki stories we created podcasts as well.. you can give a listen at:
http://web.mac.com/jmorrison9/iWeb/Moeclasspodcast/Welcome.html