Numero veintiuno

Wow- some of these wikis look great!!

I was definately in awe of some of the wiki's that I came across. I was especially impressed by the classroom pages where students worked as a class to create a well-rounded collection of knowledge on a given topic. (Many of these even incorporated the podcasts, the slideshows, and other items we learned about in this class!)

In one Spanish classroom, the wiki topic was Dia de los Muertos. A few students posted information about the history, a few students prepared information on the prepartion for the event, a few compared the differences between Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, etc... There was even audio and graphics added to the site. In the end, there was a complete source about the holiday.

On another wiki, it appeared that each student logged onto the wiki during a class period and wrote a brief paragraph about what they had learned about Dia de los Muertos. On another day, they logged onto the site and read each others postings and commented on them. Some of the students made very interesting comments and corrections to information listed.

Since I have never looked into wikis before, this whole process seems a little overwhelming. The logistics are still unclear- how do I monitor all the postings? How do I keep track of what individual students have posted? How exactly do I evaluate their work on the wiki? How do I ensure that a student doesn't make an inappropriate posting? What if one student decides to be malicious and ruin the entire site? (I don't want to be cynical, but realistically, I have a few students who come into my mind when I think about letting them post to wiki.) At this point, I still have a lot of questions that need to be answered before I dive into a classroom wiki. I am definately intrigued though!!