The Moodle Wiki

I set up a "Class Memories" Wiki on my Moodle site. I wanted to start out slow and see how it worked before I showed it to the whole class.  So today while most of my students were working on "Type to Learn,"  I asked one student to edit the Wiki.  While she was editing I asked two other students to log in and start editing.  They were both logged in and hit the edit button.  Instead of be allowed to edit at the same time as the first student, they were met with a message that stated they couldn't edit at this time because another student was editing.  

Once I established that only student could edit at a time, I did a quick mini-lesson and showed the students how they could edit the Wiki.  I also included a quick demonstration of how the history feature worked so everyone knew it wasn't anonymous.  After my mini-lesson I encouraged my students to add to the Wiki as they saw fit.  

No one took advantage of the invitation.  The only student to edit the Wiki was the initial student.  One other student did view the page, but she made no edit. 

I guess the "Class Memories" Wiki didn't capture their attention.  I now how to decide what to do with it.  Should I advertise and add to each day as a mini-lesson?  Should I require students to edit it one time?

Should I move to a more high tech Wiki, like WikiSpaces?  Or should I just forget about using a Wiki and be happy that they are blogging?  To be honest, I have no idea what I'm going to do..

Today's Computer Lab

I had a great computer lab today.  My students accomplished a ton in 60 minutes. 

Students did three major things:

1. Using Wordle, they created a description of Justin Case from Justin Case: School Drool and Other Daily Diasters.  Students used: descriptive words such as: worrywart, brave, kind; they included character names, human, animal and stuffed; talked about his dislikes; etc.  Students printed them out for sharing.
2. Students then wrote a blog about their favorite part of school using kidblog.org.  Most had a main idea statement and then gave supporting details.  The number of details varied by student. 
3. Finally students went to http://www.eduplace.com/tales/ to create a "Wacky Web Tales."  They filled in the blanks for word types and then the program created their story for them.  Students then copied and pasted their "Wacky Web Tales" into their blog.  They were also asked to copy a link to "Wacky Web Tales"

Students then had time to share their blog posts and "Wacky Web Tales" either online or by calling kids ove to their computers.  I shared Wordle highlights after.

I was amazed at how much they did today.  I was really proud of what they created and how eager they were to share with one another.

kidblog.org

I recently attended a professional development session and learned about kidblog.org.  It sounded really interesting and after thinking about it for a month I decided to give it a try.

I was concerned that it would take a lot of time to set up but I had my class of 21 students ready to go in a half hour. I'm enrolled as an administrator, my students are enrolled as students, and one of my teacher friends is enrolled as a guest.

As administrator I control the site.  I can post my own blogs and comments. I can read and respond to all student blogs. I can delete and edit student blogs and comments.  I am also able to add new members.

Students are able to log in, write blogs, write comments, and read blogs and comments.

Guests are able to log in, and read blogs and comments.  They are not allowed to post their own content.


My students used it for the the first time this past Thursday.  Each child was asked to write a blog about a movie they liked and post one comment in response to another blog. Everyone was able to do that in class and I wasn't sure if students would do anymore writing, but they have.    Students have written about other movies, books, vacations, getting pets, sports, and ideas on life.  Students have posted multiple comments on what others have written.  I'm really excited to see what my students do with their blogs over the course of the year.

I've included two blogs.