wikis

"As I read the books to the class, we talked about what they noticed and how these books

differed from other reading they had done. We noted the use of imagery, the multiple connections, the intertextuality, and the challenging story forms. Later, when I met each group in the computer lab to learn about wikis, I reminded them of the books as a way of helping them think about how they could design their texts."

Radical Change and Wikis:

Teaching New Literacies

What is a wiki?

Before one can integrate wikis in their classroom, you have to have an understanding of what a wiki is. A wiki is an interactive webpage where multiple people can add information about a topic. For example, other teachers could add information about what a wiki is to this webpage. A common wiki to many people is wikipedia. If fact, this is the definition of wiki from wikipedia. "A wiki is software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. These wiki websites are often also referred to aswikis; for example, Wikipedia is often considered one of the best known wikis."

How to create a wiki?

http://wikisarefun.wikispaces.com/How+to+create+a+wiki

"The technology I chose was the wiki because it is an easily learned, open-source software program

that allows all users to access and edit the pages on an ongoing basis (Dobson, in press; Luce-Kapler & Dobson, 2005). Wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick and beautifully describes how users can, within minutes, create webpages."

- Rebecca Luce-Kapler

What can a wiki add to a classroom?

1. Student involvement in classroom activities is increased

2. Students attitudes toward class assignments improves

3. Students improve typing skills

4. Students learn to work with other students on a project

5. Students learn the value of research

6. Students learn the importance of referencing sources when researching

7. Students have a platform to express ideas creatively

8. Students learn responsibility for their piece of the bigger assignment

9. Students can work with other students in other schools and other countries over the world. To do this, you must contact other students in a different school to collaborate. Once the wiki is created and students understand their purpose, they may login and add changes to the wiki from any computer. A student in my class could be partnered with a student in Europe and together they could add and revise their work from their perspective computers.

10. Students expand their knowledge in creative ways

What might be disadvantages to using a wiki?

"By using online,web-editing software,

teachers can develop new practices that engage students in exploring new

literacies and help them gain

visual literacy skills."

- Rebecca Luce-Kapler

Radical Change Texts

Dresang (1999) identified three characteristics, any or all of which might appear in a Radical

Change text:

(1) changing forms and formats such as new forms of graphics, new levels of synergy between text and pictures, nonlinear and nonsequential organizations and formats, and multiple layers of meaning and interactive formats;

(2) changing perspectives such as multiple points of view both visual and verbal and previously unheard voices, including youth; and

(3) changing boundaries such as dealing with previously forbidden or overlooked subjects and settings, new types of communities, characters portrayed in new and complex ways, and unresolved endings

- Rebecca Luce-Kapler

Activity

Book Cover

Take a look at the picture book cover page provided.

In your groups you will write a story based on what you see in the cover.

Each person must write part of the story, using their own pen.

Radical Change Text

Pick a story that everyone at your table knows.

Come up with ideas of how to change the story

into a radical text.

THE END