Thing #8

Wikis are amazing! It's like a whole other world of possibilities. I found so many of the wikis interesting. I love the natural incorporation of editing, critical thinking, analysis and synthesis. I also think the focus on collaboration and forming a group consensus through interchange of ideas and/or compromise is so needed. I found the 1000 project wiki heartwarming. It seemed simple, but so relevant in its organization. I was a little overwhelmed with the Holocaust site, and had difficulty understanding how the project was supposed to work at first. I absolutely loved the creativity inherent in the 1001 tales wikispace. I also loved the fictitious code blue clinic site for mastering biology content. I was inspired by the CoolCatTeacher's blog about her first Wiki experience and how it evolved so quickly into an interactive student study hall.

I'm still struggling with how to apply it with my students, whose 30 minute sessions revolve around articulation/speech and communication goals. My focus with the students is more oral, rather than written. However, one of the ideas I read about in my 'meanderings' related to creating a collaborative story using vocabulary or spelling words for the week. This could address so many areas of difficulty with my language disordered students. I have also been finding more speech language pathology websites which provide activities to improve students' language and articulation skills. Slowly, but surely, I will figure out how to effectively implement these tools with my students!