Thing #15

What fun!! I didn't know what a wiki was. Like many others, I thought it was short for Wikipedia! Now I know it's Hawaiian for the word "short." I'm not sure how that fits with the wiki concept, but there it is.

I have been suspicious of Wikipedia for a long time. Since it is editable by anyone, anytime, I don't trust its content; especially after hearing that celebrities' entries have been altered to reflect untrue facts. I figure if some can be made inaccurate, then so can others. I will not allow my students to use Wikipedia as a reference unless they can prove the facts from another source.


However, the concept is phenomenal as it relates to a collaborative writing. I love the idea that several students can contribute to a single piece of writing, plan projects together, and share ideas through use of a wiki space. I have already joined wikispaces.com and plan to set up more than one space for my students to work on various projects throughout the year. The first will be identifying and gathering information about the Texas state symbols. We'll probably use another one for a timeline on major events in Texas. A third one will be a collaborative short story featuring a pioneer family so they can show me what they have learned about the early days of Texas.

[I decided to fancy up my blog by adding a few interesting pictures. :) ]















One of my scrapbooking pages of my great grandmother's family who came to Texas in a wagon train.












The little girl is my grandmother whose family arrived before Texas became a state.



I am so excited about using the computers more this year than just for math tutorials. The problem will be finding the laptops available or the computer lab free when I need them!