1) I scanned through the list of wikis and quickly went to the Princeton Public Library book review wiki. I then quickly lost track of the time as I lost myself in reading all those wonderful descriptions of books, and jotted down a few I'd like to read. I will definitely be bookmarking this wiki! I also looked at a library best practices wiki. It contains many entries with a broad range of topics. It's so helpful to know that one doesn't have to reinvent the wheel! There are so many brilliant ideas already published that one can borrow or adapt to one's own teaching. There's a lot of info about use of current technology (including gaming) in libraries with students of all ages.
2) "What types of applications within libraries and schools might work well with a wiki?"
I think creating wiki entries would be a wonderfully motivating writing activity for children of all ages. Some elementary classes do a theme each month or quarter. A fourth grade class I've
visited recently has been writing about ancient civilizations, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, etc. Within their school computer lab or library, they could produce wiki entries on their individually researched reports. These can then be shared with other schools literally anywhere. A classroom teacher (or school librarian) could create a 'book or story review' wiki
from the student 'published' books in their classroom. The student authors could write a brief synopsis of their story as a wiki entry, and then another student could write a review entry after they read it. Reading wiki entries by other kids their ages and on topics that they're passionate about would also be motivating for children to read.....more and more and more, thereby improving their literacy skills!
Both Service and East have book review wikis going right now, check them out.
ReplyDeleteThe critical thing in using any kind of technology is making sure that the tool you choose is the one you need. Of course, that is true of any activity as a teacher. :-)
Ann