The wiki-based virtual literature circle experiment is continuing, and I feel that almost daily I’m learning from yet another mistake. I remain grateful for my long-suffering colleague who is collaborating with me.
What I like
- I’m glad that I had a Code of Conduct (based on the Wiki Warranty by TeachersFirst) published and reviewed with students before they started using the wiki. Today I had my first vandalism experience, with a couple of students putting inappropriate content on other students’ pages. I took the opportunity to review the Code of Conduct with the whole class and then spoke individually with the offending students. It wasn’t a highlight, but the students seemed to accept and understand why they would be banned from the wiki for the rest of the unit.
What needs work
- I wish that I had set every student up with a wikispace account ahead of time. That way I would know and control their passwords, which are prone to being lost and shared.
- I wish I’d known about the gmail-plus option for setting up multiple addresses linked to the same gmail account when I’d started. Kim Cofino first introduced me to the idea of linked gmail accounts; Sean Deasy gives a quick summary of this cool gmail feature. Next time I’ll use linked gmail accounts to sign students up for our class blog and the class wiki just for my own sanity’s sake.
- Trying to incorporate two novels into this experiment has been a bit much. College-level students can’t reliably read novels independently, so I plan to read aloud any novel we study. This gets tricky when I have two groups of students reading different novels in the same classroom. We’re surviving, but next time I do this with a college-level class I’ll just use one novel.
Two weeks left of the literature circle experiment …
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Glad to hear that the Wiki Warranty was a useful tool in handling vandalism on your wiki. Think of it as pre-emptive weed-control. Glad to hear that you are willing to keep learning from your “needs work” items. Your students probably learn as much from witnessing your willingness to learn as they do from the novels! Keep on plugging! (Don’t you love RSS feeds that pick up mention of your favorite words in blogs? I found you fast!)
Thanks for stopping by, Candace. The Wiki Warranty has been a great help, as have the other wiki-related ideas at TeachersFirst. For example, I took the advice there and talked with my supervisors before unleashing students on the wiki. I’m glad to have done so because the support in my school has been helpful. Our principal has been checking our wiki out and hopes to find time to join in the collaboration, which is encouraging for me and exciting for students.