Using a Wiki in my classes

Until this class, I had never understood what wikis were. In fact, although I had used Wikipedia, I didn't realize that the page was editable, or that there were discussion pages cataloguing the creation of each page. I am excited about the possibilities that are available in my use of wikis in my high school classroom.

I have to admit that I will have to start small since I'm still learning the technology that 's available and how to use it. I am still at the stage where I am using the new tools to do administrative tasks such as introducing a new student to our learning platform (via a video) or making my course documents available for downloading rather than using the technology to enhance student learning. Since my high school classes are open exit, open entry and self paced, my students are at different places of their courses at any given time. So I have to find ways to deliver direct instruction on an individual level. I plan to make videos of myself teaching some of the topics that I repeatedly tutor to my students and then making the videos available to them as a resource to accompany their computer driven instruction. That would be "step 1" of my integration of technology into my classroom. Eventually, I would like to find a way to have my students collaborate to make their own "mini lectures" to upload for other students to use as resources. I also like the idea of students collaborating in a wiki to create a set of notes for each unit they study, and then letting them use the collaborative notes on their tests. I'd like to find more virtual manipulative resources on the web to add to my wiki to supplement lessons or even to encourage students to find virtual manipulatives and then create a mini lesson to post for other students to learn and use the manipulatives. In a recent Precalculus Wiki that I visited, a class had used the wiki to showcase the results of their class project in which students photographed everyday items that had an underlying math structure within them. They then drew and described the underlying math function. I love this idea of having students find math in their everyday lives and then sharing them with everyone. As I am now following different educational technology blogs, each day I am exposed to more and more technology resources and ideas. It is very evident that this journey for me has just begun. I'm excited about the possibilities!