Thing #9

Creating the wiki wasn't too bad. It was a lot more fun to make them than to read them. I can see where the usefulness might be for collaboration. The formatting still seems a bit primitive, maybe that's because we are using a free wiki site. Embedding the text and pictures didn't allow for all of the same freedoms that you might get in word. Oh well, if that's the only complaint, I guess it's pretty cool.

I like the idea of the sandbox - a "closed" place to post wikis. I wonder what it would take to set up a school sandbox and allow parents to see it, but teachers to edit it? Could this take the place of my school website? Wouldn't that be helpful. I guess I could add that to my burning questions!

Thing #8

Wiki............hmmmmm..............

I understand what a wiki is. I see it's potential in the classroom! What is frustrating or maybe disappointing is the outside looking in final project. I love how the wiki's allow for collaboration and growth in the production, but in the end, the final products appear to be more like an informational website - ho hum...

Now, if I were using this in my class, such as CoolCat Teacher did, I am sure that my passion for the topic and the tool would be MUCH more enthusiastic.

I visited the Kindergarten Counting Book Wiki. The end result just looked like a website with pictures on it. However, I'm sure that during the creation of this counting expedition the teacher and students were so excited about getting to use an interactive technology tool. So, as I said before, from the outside looking in, this isn't very exciting. Maybe if I could just muster up the strength to start one for my school, I could find infinite uses for the wiki!

I did visit the Primary Math wiki and then branched off into one of the first grade blogs. It was a very current blog that showed what the students were actually learning. Again, this was a blog and not a wiki. The actual wiki was a place where each of the classrooms posted the link to their blog.... I think I like the blogging much better - I always end up there!

The Schools in the Past wiki was kind of neat, allowing teachers, parents, grandparents and students to all give input in real time on one document for all to see. I thought that was a neat way to use the technology!

I struggle with ideas about how to use this with my school, right now. Maybe more ideas will come to me as I view more and more of them!

Thing #7a

Well, I can't tell you how stressed this makes me to post outside of the "things" and therefore, get my list of entries out of order... yes, I know obsessive compulsive! Anyway - I just had to blog about what I learned today. I'm still playing with Things 3 and 4... can't move on to Things 8 and 9 yet! Too much to do!

My friend, IB2, (teacher at my school and member of our 23 things class) taught me how to get a cool new background on my blog. He also taught me how to put my family blog and my school blog all on one dashboard so that I don't have to keep logging in and out with the two different accounts! Isn't that awesome?

So here's the deal... Go to this link and you will be able to see tons of free backgrounds for your blog! I spent hours playing with and picking out new backgrounds for my blog. I might even change them with each post! There are fun "seasonal" backgrounds, traditional or conservative, wild and crazy and even a few just plain weird backgrounds! I hope you enjoy this little link! I sure did! Thank you IB2 for the hints and tips! I'm glad that I still have face to face friends that teach me things! I'm not sure what I would do if everyone were only virtual! :-)

Enjoy the new backgrounds and try not to harass me about my OCD! I know... I have issues! Getting things in "order" is just the beginning! Explains alot about me, doesn't it!