Building+a+Wiki+Shell

toc =Creating Your Own Wikispace=

As a teacher, you will need to construct your own wiki shell so that your students can get to work enjoying all the learning opportunities the wiki and the digital world has to offer! So, if you haven't already registered for your own wiki pages, do that now and then follow these instructions


 * Click on "Make a New Space"
 * Enter your space name (cannot have any spaces between letters
 * Choose visibility (remember, this can be changed later)Your first wiki page will open.
 * Follow the guide and create look and feel
 * Add pages: go back to your design from Module 2 and create two or three pages
 * Click on New Page (upper left)
 * Window opens; type in title and click on "Create"
 * Page opens; click on Save
 * Repeat the process until you have three pages loaded
 * Return to main page; click on "edit navigation" left bar
 * Enter page titles in the order you would like them to appear (this can be changed later)
 * Highlight the titles and click on the linking icon (world with a chain link) in the toolbar
 * Diaglogue box opens to create a "wiki link" between the navigation bar and the page
 * The right page probably comes up; double check the titles are the same and click "Okay"

=Example of Teaching Page w/ Student Projects=

I have prepared an example you to look at and better understand what I am asking both you as teachers and students as users of my wiki to do. As you both connect to the content materials and the power of the wiki, you will enrich your understanding and make meaning. That is real learning. Right now, as you work through this wiki and plan your own, you are really learning and that is what you want for your students, real learning rather than just rote memorization or copied responses reitereated from a textbook.

=Collaborative Sandbox Activity= Below are links to blank pages, a collaborative sandbox for you to practice on developing a wiki page. Don't spend too much time on it...remember--this is a sandbox and your scratches in the sand won't last forever. Once you have edited this page with the title, save and return to the read mode, click on your linked page and begin work on the model of your wiki site...or click on the linked pages of someone else and see what they have done. That is how a wiki works.

What to do on your page? I have instruction there, too, but for the sake of practice, generalize, title or conceptualize your three performance objectives into three separate sections of the page. Then, beneath each one, provide instructions for your students on how complete a related task that would give them practice at being able to achieve the objective in measurable terms. If you look back at my example page, I have a vocabulary section, a section for summarizing and a section for analyzing the aspects of AS heroism. Those are related to my unit objectives.

What could you have your students do? Well, you've seen a chart in a wiki; you've seen pictures in a wiki; you've seen a word document in a wiki; you've found sites outside of the wiki and entered them into the wiki and you've entered your own text into a wiki. What other creative ideas did you see teachers doing with wikis when you went out and searched for "Worthy Wikis"? What could you have your students do? Be creative and your students will thrive!

Team #1 Unit Title Team #2 Unit Title Team #3 Unit Title Team #4 Unit Title Team #5 Unit Title = = =Identifying Goals= = =

Performance Objectives
Using online resources to engage and motivate is an excellent tool in today's classrooms. However, just using technology is not the answer. Lessons must be carefully thought out so that they foster the kind of learning state standards, district standards, and your standards demand. Below are two PowerPoint presentations that address the need be intentional in your planning of online lessons and the need to cause your students to be introspective in their learning, if it is to be real and rich.

PowerPoints

 * Improving Instruction through Intentionality**


 * Improving Instruction through Introspection**

I have placed a document below entitled "Using Performance Objectives to Organize a Wiki Space." The components of this guide are based on the PowerPoint lecturettes and good instructional design theory...in other words, the outcomes you have decided upon as the purpose for collaborative wiki projects should dictate the activities you direct students to engage in **and** the outcomes of those actvities should have measurable means. Suggestions for opening and saving this document for use: > = = = = = = =Designing Pages=
 * Right click on the link
 * Click on Open in New Window
 * When the dialogue box opens, click on Save
 * Save into your own files--that is the only way you will be able to write into the document. Opening the document is a "view only"

Creating a Mental Model
Once I have generated my performance objectives for a conventional unit based in a wiki environment, I next draw a mental model of what pages will be needed, how they will connect and an idea of what would be on each one as sections. Click on the link below and see the mental model based on the performance objectives of the Anglo Saxon unit. As you will see, I may create a section on a page or perhaps create an entire page for vocabulary, for heroes and for culture comparisons. I may even have the cultural comparison page continue through the year as we move through various texts and times.