Thing #15

Exploring Wikis:
I have been exploring some recommended wiki sites with mixed results. I have been interested in reading across the curriculum lately due to some reading that I have been doing in connection with a paper I am writing as well as due to conversations this has sparked with colleagues. I thought I would explore some of the book/ library focused wikis to see if I could develop some good reading recommendations for my students. I know there is great stuff to read out there and I know I have several students that love to read. It is a shame we don't do a better job bringing those two groups together.
I found that the Booklovers wiki is mainly old stuff published a few years ago to document a summer reading from Princeton University. I guess it is human nature, but I was turned off by the fact that most entries were years old. The point of a wiki is to be new and up to date. I think students will agree and be more likely to use and get excited about wikis with recent activity. Teacherlibrarian wiki had some more up to date stuff and some good booklists.
Then I looked at Welkerswikinomics and found some cool stuff that could apply to my calculus class such as the page at the following link.: http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/page/Price+Elasticity+of+Supply
There are many other cool applications of slope and reading graphs such as this in there.
I selected my Zoho slideshow to post into the APSU 23 things sandbox Wiki. I am comfortable enough now with all of this that it was straight forward. I EVEN USED THE HTML EDITOR TO PUT IN THE ACTUAL SLIDESHOW! I never could have done that before this Educational Technology class I'm in!
I have been using Wikis in my class as a general resource for some time now. They are a handy reference if one needs to know the formula for the volume of a sphere or something like that. They come up on Google automatically. Wikipedia is well known. I enjoyed looking at the other wikis I found during this assignment. I see now that they have much more potential than as mere quick reference tools.