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Wikispaces + RSS = No Worries

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm using Wikispaces for my online classroom space this year. I've been slow about getting students involved in using the wiki, mainly because of my limited experience using Wikispaces but also because of the limited time I had before the school year to do any sort of planning.

Locked down

Initially, I locked all the wiki pages that I created- The class home pages, weekly schedules, assignments, etc.  Students did not have the rights to edit these pages. They could create new pages and edit them, but I was worried about the slim risk of a student vandalizing a main page, which might then be seen by a parent or administrator before I (or someone else) deleted the vandalism.

I know this reasoning was fear-based, and I didn't like it. I want students to be able to edit anything and everything. I want to give them the chance to improve and collaborate online. What I needed was a better way to monitor page edits.

RSSRSS saved my life

After minimal searching, I realized that in addition to providing RSS feeds for the edits made to individual pages, Wikispaces also provided a "master" RSS feed for every page edit made on my space.

I quickly subscribed the the "all page edits" RSS feed via Google Reader, and instantly every page edit made on my class space was pushed to my reader. Suddenly I was confident that if anyone chose to vandalize a page I would notice it right away. I check my Reader at home, at school, and often via my phone. Gone on vacation? I can still check page edits no problem.

Currently many of the day-to-day page edits are my own. During class wiki projects, there's a deluge of edits, but it doesn't take much time to flip through them since you really only need to pay attention to any changes that were made.

To date there's been no vandalism on the class wiki. I doubt vandalism will ever be a problem. But now I can unobtrusively monitor editing activity so I don't even have to worry about it.

What it looks like

Wikispaces RSS feed

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RSS Image by photopia / HiMY SYeD

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Welcome to my wiki

My last school required that all teachers have web pages in order to (at minimum) communicate the daily schedule to students and parents. I used it for my schedule, but also as a jump-off for online assignments.

My new school does not require all teachers to have web pages. Yet I enjoyed the benefits of having an online space for my class. I just had to have some online space for this year too. After a bit a research into what was and wasn't blocked by the school filter, what sites other educators have used, what features various services offer, etc., I settled on using Wikispaces for my new class website.

I began using my class wiki for the same things as my old static website: weekly agendas and a jump-off for online assignments.  Since then I've slowly been increasing the level of involvement my students have with the wiki.

I'll go into specifics about how students are using the wiki in later posts. For now, I want to focus on a few observations and issues that have come up.

The good

  • Messaging

    • Students realized quickly they could send messages to each other (and to me) through their Wikispaces accounts. Students send me messages asking for clarification. Students send each other messages asking for help or information.

  • Creating & Publishing

    • I've only had one assignment that required students to create a wiki page (details in a future post), but we like that it's being published for everyone in the world to see. They like they can work on it directly from any computer in the world (though usually just the computer at their house).

  • Saving

    • The scourge of digital assignments: lost files. My freshmen have next to zero experience saving files to a network drive. I can't tell you how many times students have saved a file to a computer's hard drive instead of their network drive, thus losing access to the file as soon as they log off that machine. The wiki creates a record of the page after each save. If somehow the contents of the entire page gets deleted (which has happened- thrice) they can simply revert back to the last version.

  • RSS

    • I was a little nervous letting my students loose on the wiki. I really didn't think anyone would do something inappropriate, but I still worried. Luckily, Wikispaces (and many other wiki sites) create RSS feeds for page edits and discussion postings- both for individual pages and for the entire space. I subscribe to the feeds for all page edits and all discussion postings. It's an easy way for me to keep track of what's happening on the wiki. I don't want to be a wiki-dictator (wikitator?), but I want to be able to catch anything inappropriate before half the world sees it.

The not so good

  • Messaging

    • There's definitely plenty of personal messaging going back and forth in addition to the academic-related messages. I don't have a problem with this- if it's done in moderation. For 95% of my students it's not a problem. 5% would message people all hour if I didn't get after them for it.

  • What's the point?

    • Roughly paraphrased, the student asked why we couldn't just do this on paper- wouldn't it be way faster? Sheesh. I wasn't ready for that one. I figured the relevance of publishing content online for parents, peers, and the world to see would clear that up. I figured the increasingly digital world we live in would make the point obvious. Obviously I didn't explain what wikis are or why we're using this particular tool very well. In classes with students who have very little computer experience (I had to show some students how to use Google), this stuff isn't obvious. They don't know what a wiki is, what it does, or why they would ever want to use one.

  • Quirkiness

    • Let's face it: Editing a wiki- even one that has a visual editor like Wikispaces- isn't always inuitive and striaght forward. There are certain quirks to it that take time to adjust to. It's trickier and less flexible than editing a Word document. Students who aren't tech savvy can quickly get frustrated with these quirks. I'm constantly finding myself saying, "Just be patient, everyone is running into similar issues, I promise it'll get easier the more experienced you become." These first few uses can be a bit trying.

Exemplars, tips, suggestions?

I'm coming to the realization that I really don't have good examples of wiki usage in a science classroom. I've done my research checking out several classroom wikis, yet I can't recall finding a single high school-ish science class' wiki. Anyone know of any?

I'm feeling a little frustrated that my curriculum doesn't seem to mesh extremely well with the use of a wiki. I could make the wiki a more prominent part of assignments and projects, but I'm wary of forcing the wiki into situations it really doesn't belong. However, I can't help but feel my lack of experience using a wiki in a science classroom and of exemplar science class wikis means that I'm missing some really powerful and obvious things that would mesh perfectly. I'm hoping when I revamp the curriculum next year to facilitate more project-based assessments these uses may spring up and smack me in the face like a garden rake.

Any tips, suggestions, or examples would be greatly appreciated. 😉

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How do you use web 2.0 in the classroom?

I'm currently taking a Educational Media & Technology class in my master's program called Virtual Worlds and Social Networking in Education. A project for the class involves setting up a social network through some web 2.0 format and utilizing your network to try to accomplish a chosen goal.

eBoy FooBar CityI (of course) asked if I could utilize Twitter as the centerpiece of my network. I already had a quaint Twitter network, and had been thinking of expanding it. I have also been interested in how educators are effectively using blogs, wikis, social bookmarking tools, etc. in their classrooms.

As a result, I've actively been following new people in education on Twitter and finding that the vast majority of people I start following follow me back. As a result, my Twitter followers have expanded from 28 or so to 67 at the time of this writing (3/19, 10:03pm EDT). I've been amazed and thankful at the willingness of other educators to include me within their pre-existing networks. If you like what you see on this blog (or not), feel free to follow me (I'm WillyB). I'll follow you back. 🙂

To tap into the vast experience of that network (which if you're reading this includes you!), I've created a Google Form asking how educators are utilizing blogs, wikis, or social bookmarking in their classrooms. If you'd like to add your expertise, go here and add it! I thank you in advance (and greatly appreciate those that have already added their knowledge)!

The information provided will be summarized in a wiki I've recently created, and I'll also be sharing the results on this blog once I feel I've gotten a good number of responses. I've been wowed by the power of the network in the past, and I'm hoping I'll be blown away in this experience as well.

When I think back to when I wrote this post, I find it amazing that a few short months later I have a pretty vibrant personal learning network of my own. Nice!

Image credit: eBoy's FooBar Poster