A Week of Wiki

Vacation is over and it is time to reflect on the success of our vacation wiki experiments.

• The Odyssey of the Mind team Wiki was a great success. Every student signed in at least once and contributed to the script or discussion. However, most students spent hours at the wiki over vacation. The team wrote and edited their whole script. They also spent some time in the discussion area deciding how they will solve the required problem and what supplies they may need. The students told me today that they really enjoyed working on the wiki over vacation. The students liked the layout of Wikispaces and found it easy to use. One fifth grade student described it as "really cool and fun". Based on this reaction, we will continue using this approach of between meeting collaboration until competition. I will also definitely use a wiki with students again. Another benefit of this wiki is that Wikispaces offers private wikis to teachers. I felt comforted because the site is password protected. Strangers can not edit or post messages.

• The grant writing wiki worked well but was not as inclusive as the students' wiki. A few of us signed in regularly and really brainstormed ideas. We were able to find prices for items and link product sites and add product pictures within the text. It was a great experience for those that participated, but before we move further we will need to also have some non-technology based meetings and discussion. Despite this, I still believe that those of us who participated were able to get more done over vacation than we would have any other way.

Now that I have had a chance to get my feet wet with these wiki's, I am sure that I will continue to look for ways to incorporate them into my professional life.