Creating an Educational Wiki with Wikispaces

I am talking with the elementary teachers at my school today about using wikis in their classes. When asked to do this, I debated about whether to get them started with pbwiki or wikispaces (time did not allow to get them started with both, nor did it seem logical although they will be introduced to all free educational wiki options to explore on their own). I have been using pbwiki this year and really like it, mostly because of being able to create accounts for my students without email addresses along with the look of it. But wikispaces allows you to create student accounts now also if it is an educational wiki. Wikispaces also has more editing features that I think are important for teachers who are still getting used to web use in their classroom. I have had to look up code for several things that I wanted to put on my pbwikis that some teachers may not want to do. So, while I still fully endorse and love pbwiki, I have decided to focus on wikispaces for this post.  I will hopefully give an in depth look at pbwiki in the future.

Wikis in the Classroom

Wikis are a very valuable tool for use in the classroom for many reasons.  I use a wiki in my library classes and recently had students write their own ending to The Giver on it. After they were finished, I embedded a Google Docs form allowing them to vote for their favorite endings based on the categories of "Best Ending" and the "Most Creative" ending. The winners' writings will be displayed in the library and on the wiki once all votes are in. This is just one example of student sharing. The possible uses of wikis in the classroom are endless, but here is a presentation by @tombarrett titled 9 Interesting Ways to Use Wikis in the Classroom to get you thinking.

If you are interested in starting an educational Wikispaces wiki, below is a step by step guide that I created to get you going.

I have also recorded a screencast of the process for those of you who prefer a visual presentation.

Capture your screen in seconds

Skype

A colleague asked me about Skype today so I think I will answer his question in my next blog post.  

What is Skype?:

Skype is a free internet phone service that allows you talk, video chat, or text chat free to anyone else with a Skype account.  For example, while living in Chile, my mother was able to see and talk to my first born son as soon as we got home from the hospital via Skype.

You also have the option to deposit money into your account to make phone calls to land lines or cell phones or send SMS messages for a small fraction of the cost of your traditional service. 

The service that has been most useful for me is having a Skype phone number.  I was able to pay a small fee to have a phone number with my home town area code that people could call (local charges for them if they were in that area code and skype fees for me, which are minimal) at any time. I also had that service forwarded to my cell phone in India while living there so that anytime I was offline and someone from the US or anywhere else called, the call would go straight to my cell phone. 

Skype can also be very useful in the classroom.  While living and teaching in India, I had to return to the US for a family emergency and missed two weeks of school. By using the very interactive software DyKnow and Skype, I was able to teach my students in India from Texas. I used DyKnow to present the lesson, and Skype to talk to them. It was amazing. When I returned, it was like we never missed a beat.

There are also other various ways to use Skype in the classroom. Students can communicate and collaborate with each other or with students from other schools. Teachers can collaborate with each other no matter their location. Files, images, videos, and links can also be shared via Skype. The options are limitless.

Below is an excellent tutorial video by Cool Cat Teacher to help you get started with Skype as well as ideas for how to use it in the classroom. I also highly suggest you check out her blog post about skype. You can follow her on Twitter at @coolcatteacher. 

Glogster - An Interactive Poster

I was recently introduced to Glogster by Neil Stephenson (@neilstephenson) on his blog Thinking in Mind. Glogster's logo is "Poster Yourself", but it also has an educational version that allows students to make private interactive posters. Posters can have video, sound, images, text, and links.

Below is an example of a student Glog: (right click for full screen option)

Getting Started with Glogster:

To get a Glogster account as a teacher, go to glogster.com/edu and register your virtual class. You will have an option of registering your students with accounts (which is great for students who cannot do email confirmation and for teachers that want to keep their students' work private).

Once you have your account, you can create a glog. Below is a short tutorial video to help you get started:

Screencasts and videos online

How Twitter Inspired Me, How it Could Inspire You

In my first post, I would like to take some time to explain how I was inspired to start this blog. I have to give most of the credit to Twitter and my PLN (personal learning network). I joined Twitter months ago not really knowing how I wanted to use it. I already use Facebook to keep up with my friends and Twitter just seemed like one more thing to keep up with. I wasn't following many people and almost nobody was following me (to follow on Twitter means to subscribe to someone's updates), and why would they, I was not adding any updates. Then, @dearlibrariann started tweeting some things that gave me ideas of how to integrate technology in my class. I looked to see who she followed on Twitter and started following some of the same people. All of a sudden a whole new learning environment opened up to me. I was learning at least three new things about technology everyday that I thought could enhance learning. Twitter then led to blogs. Many of the people that I follow on Twitter tweet when they have posted something to their blogs, so I started reading their blogs. Next I updated my Google Reader (where all new posts on blogs that I subscribe to are compiled) and am now following several blogs that enhance my learning even more (you can see my blog roll on the right). And it just keeps getting better. I find new people to follow on Twitter, I actually have people following me, and try to tweet something informative everyday. Because my job consists of helping teachers with technology integration, I would now like to share some of the knowledge that I have acquired with them and anyone else that may find it useful.

I have learned so much over the last month, and have so many new ideas of how technology can be used in the classroom to enhance learning, that I don't know where to begin. So, I will start with what inspired me, Twitter.

For those of you who are not familiar with Twitter, it is a microblogging tool where you can update what you are doing in 140 characters or less. Each microblog is called a tweet. In your tweets, you can add links, reply to tweets, or send direct messages. If you don't have a Twitter account, I highly suggest it. It is easy and free.

How to Get Started on Twitter:

Just go to www.twitter.com and click on the "Get Started - Join" button and follow the instructions. Once you have an account, you will need to find people to follow. There are several ways to do this.

1. To find specific people, you can use Twitter's "Find People" at the top of your Twitter page. When there you can choose to find people on Twitter, from other networks, invite by email, or suggested users. I suggest "Find on Twitter" to start with.

Then you can type in the first name, last name, or username of the person you are looking for. If the name is popular, you may have to weed through several first.

2. You can also go to twitter4teachers to find teachers who teach a common subject or grade level.

3. I think the best way to find people to follow is by looking at who other people you trust follow. If you were to start with me, you would go to my Twitter page at twitter.com/hhoskins. At the bottom right are pictures of all the people I follow. If you click on a picture, it takes you to that person's page where you can see what type of information they are tweeting. If you like what a person tweets, click on the "follow" button under their picture. Now you will get their Tweets on your page.

Once you have found some people to follow, read their Tweets, follow links, and start Tweeting yourself. Your Twitter page will not refresh automatically so you will need to refresh to see recent tweets. If you want to get fancy, install TweetDeck or Thwirl to get automatic Twitter updates.

Important Twitter abreviations:

• @username is used to reply to a tweet
• RT means retweet (when you want to pass a tweet onto your PLN)

How to use Twitter in the Classroom?:

I got these from Twitter's own @tombarrett!

Twenty-one Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom

And check out this from @mrslwalker:

Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter