Thing #16 -- should be #17

Somehow I got ahead and posted my last entry as #17 and it should have been #16. So this one will have to be listed as #16 but it is really #17. I visited the California Curriculum Connections wiki (so glad Web 2.0 was added to the CDE website!!! -- Congratulations Jackie, et al!!) and read all the wonderful ideas people have added. I think the applications are endless. I know from my experience that most of them would not work unless content area teachers are collaborating on these projects. Wikis in particular would work well if they are assigned by a subject area teacher and then evaluated by the teacher librarian, who could make excellent suggestions for more content, etc. Visuals seem particularly important -- the ability to add photos, videos, podcasts. I particularly liked the idea of students creating their own avatars. These could be used for blogs especially. But my main feeling is that students will participate when they are encouraged to do so by their content area teachers -- and are involved in projects that are collaborative in nature. I left a comment on pbwiki but not on the California Curriculum Connections wiki. I loved the page for CSLA 2.0 Team and Friends that features everyone's avatars. WebTools4U2Use is a great link!!

Today is a good day to go outside and enjoy the sunshine at Echo Park Lake!

Thing #17 - Wikis

Having looked at all the links for wikis, I wonder if this is a tool that is hard to maintain, or is being replaced? The most active wikis seem to relate to conferences (CSLA conference wiki) or ALA (which has many wikis, all of which seem to be kept up to date -- all useful). The ones I enjoyed most were those that recommended books to read (and then linked to their library catalog if you were lucky to live near that library). Library Instruction wiki didn't work on my browser -- I tried it many times. A wiki called Blogs About Teen Library Services very helpful, as was Library Services: A Best Practices Wiki." I have to admit a prejudice against Wikipedia, starting with an entry about my father. I do not generally trust blogs or wikis for information, and question the source of it. But I might also say that Encyclopedias are not necessarily always "correct" -- they all have biases. Perhaps the interactive quality of Web 2.0 is a good thing, allowing a reader to enter information that s/he feels is relevant or more up-to-date. How about Interactive Textbook Wikis -- since we cannot afford to buy new textbooks? We can enter our own information, inviting experts in the fields to weigh in on the content. Wikis are an interesting tool -- but I wonder if they are being replaced by other tools? Face-to-face interactions will be a thing of the past?