Implementation

  • How will you introduce this to the class?
  • What do you have to do to get permission from the powers-that-be at your school?

This first one is a very good question.  We are fortunate enough to have LCD projectors in our rooms, though, so walking the class through how to use a wiki shouldn’t be too difficult.  I plan to wait until we have done a few days worth of lessons introducing Egypt to the class before showing them the site.  As we go through our Egypt unit (usually about 3 weeks long), we will be taking periodic trips to the computer lab where the class will be able to interact with the site.  I’ll have them work in their small groups on individual pages, since each student can’t edit at the same time.  Eight different groups of 3 to 4 students can edit eight different pages, though.  Much of the composition of the pages will have to be done in class with paper and pencil, as their total computer time is going to be limited.  We will probably only get into the lab 3 or 4 times during the unit, and may have to extend our time working on the wiki into the next social studies unit.  Students will also be invited to work on it from home if they wish.

I have thought quite a bit about how I will get permission at my school.  I don’t think it will be too tough to get principal approval, the challenge will be locating the correct person at my district to unblock the required sites.  I don’t want to go too high up the administrator chain because I’ll probably run into roadblocks, but if I find the right person with the technical ability who won’t have any irrational fears associated with internet use for students, it might end up being easy.  I’m just hoping that I will just be able to send an email or make a phone call to get it to happen, and I won’t have to write up any reports or fill out paperwork to make it happen.  There are several other applications I’d like to be able to work with in my classroom might require the same sort of procedure, so I am really hoping it won’t be too difficult.