Week 3 - Wiki Reflection

This week’s project was interesting for me. I believe the hardest part was summarizing the material that I chose to work on. I felt like I was covering what others might also be working on, but as it turned out, the information was different enough that we provided separate concepts/ ideas.
I love creating and designing things. I have always enjoyed coming up with ideas for brochures, cards, stationary, and many others. Designing stuff through using the computer is right up my alley. The technology aspect keeps me working on it longer than if I were doing something by hand. During my undergraduate work, I had to create a web quest. I thought this was a fun and creative way to have students interact with lessons. I enjoyed myself so much, that I went back after the class had finished and continued to make modifications.
One of the best parts about this assignment was working with my group. It’s great to work with people that jump right in and will do anything. I felt like it was no problem if I needed help, all I had to do was ask. Thanks everyone. After reading all of the conversations that went on, it seems like most groups worked very well together. The discussion board works great for this – the only benefit of the traditional classroom would be the instant response during a discussion. I find myself to be a bit impatient, especially when I have a difficult time waiting until I am home from work.
The wiki page is a good way to share information with each other and web users. Even though I have had minimal experience with web design, I was still a little leery about my technology skills when contributing to this page. Those feelings went away quickly once I logged in and began looking at the different tools and what I could do with them. The wiki editing/building page is very user friendly. I felt like modifications were made very easily.
As far as using wiki in my classroom, I would love to develop one for each of my classes. I can see many benefits and uses. Prior to this class, I had been talking to one of our teaching coaches about creating a web page, and she actually suggested a wiki. I just have not been able to contribute the time to one as yet. Uses of a wiki in one of my classes may include a calendar, assignment page, handout source, and website links. I also think it would be beneficial to have students do something similar to what we have done this week–work together as a team and create a wiki for a project in class and use it for a presentation. I excited about all of the ideas running through my head and frustrated that it will take me so long to implement them. (because most of my students don’t have access to technology.) Hopefully, in a weeks I will have more access to our school lab.