Evaluation+of+Ed.+Wiki

= Evaluation of an Educational Wiki =

** 1. Who designed the wiki? **
==== The creator of this particular wiki is a history and photography teacher named Mr. Dan McDowell. He teaches at West Hill High School in Santee, California. His username on Wikispaces is “dmcdowell”. He created the website on December 9, 2006. ====

** 2. Who is the wiki for? **
==== First of all, the wiki is called “WWI: Poetry and Letters Home”. The wiki is designed for Mr. McDowell’s history classes. There is a page for each history period that he teaches (Period 2 and Period 7). ====

** 3. What is the purpose of the wiki? **
==== The purpose of the wiki is to provide a space for his students to participate in a poetry project. The students are to write and post their own poems to their own page within the class wiki. Their poems are to be inspired by events and images from WWI. Each student is to write a poem from a soldier’s perspective and base it off of what they’ve learned so far about WWI in their history class. They are to base it off of the lectures, notes, and pieces that they’ve read in class. Once their poem is written, each student will type (or cut and paste) their poem into the class Wiki. They are to then find five WWI images that reflect the content, tone, or theme of their poem. The teacher created a separate page within the wiki with several links to websites where students are to find their WWI images. ====

** 4. What subject(s) is the wiki for? **
==== This wiki is for a history class, as they are studying WWI. It also has some cross-curricular elements into English, as the students are being asked to write poems. With students choosing famous photographs to utilize within their poems, it also covers areas in art as well. ====

** 5. What are the main contents included? **
==== The wiki has three main tabs that directly relate to the poetry project itself. There are also four other tabs with other resources for the students to access. Starting with the three main tabs, there are: Project Instructions, Example, and Image Resources. ====

==== Under the Project Instructions tab, students are given contact information for their teacher (email address and class website). There are links to sample projects from Danielle, Selam, and Megan. The task is very clear, which explains what the project is about and what they must do, step by step. The process in which to complete the tasks is also very clear, from logging in to getting started. There are also instructions on how to inserting images once their poem is complete. ====

==== Under the Example tab, students can see a sample poem that a student had written, with WWI images inserted throughout. This way the students can see exactly what the teacher is looking for (for format, content, and layout). ====

==== The Inserting Images tab provides students with twelve different links to famous WWI images (photographs and paintings) to view. From these pages, the students will choose any five, which is the required amount for the poem project. ====

==== The final four tabs are: Period 2, Period 7, Past Years, and World History Website. The first two tabs (Period 2 and Period 7) are links to separate pages where the students created links to their own pages within the wiki. If you click on Period 2, for example, you will see the names of the students that participated in the project. If you click on their name, it takes you to the WWI poem that they wrote with images inserted. The Past Years tab takes you to links of student poems that were written in “years past”. Finally, the World History Website tab takes you to a couple of links: the class website as well as the main school’s website. ====

** 6. How do the participants contribute to the wiki? **
==== Students must create their own account on Wikispaces, log in, and then join the class wiki. Once their WWI poem is written, they must create a new page within the wiki and post their poem to the page. Then they will research to find the five images that they would like to use and paste them into their poem. Once their individual page is complete, they must find the page for their particular class (Period 2, Period 7, etc) and hit EDIT to type their name on the page. They will then highlight their name and create a hyperlink to their individual page (which holds their poem). When they are finished, they will hit SAVE. ====

** 7. Do you think the wiki serves its purpose well or not? Explain. **
==== I do think that the wiki serves its purpose well. The tasks are very clear and are outlined step by step. If students have any questions or concerns, contact information is provided so that they can email their teacher at any time for help. Many poems are posted and with the categories provided, students can look back and read many other poems. It’s nice that it is all in one place. ====

** 8. Report a thing or two you like and dislike about the wiki. **
====I really like the concept behind the project itself. I love the idea of doing some cross-curricular work between history, English, and the arts. Students are provided with many websites for choosing the five required photographs for their poem, so it is unlikely that the same images would be used over and over again (which is a good thing). I love that poetry projects from “Years Past” are still there so students have plenty of samples to look at and be inspired by.====

====There are a couple of things, however, that I didn’t like about this wiki. The students are instructed to “Write a poem from the perspective of a WWI soldier using information shared in class over the last couple weeks”. That is the extent of their instructions on how to actually write the poem. I think that there should be some further guidelines, such as requiring a certain number of lines or stanzas, having to come up with a creative title for their poem, and perhaps utilizing at least one poetic device of their choosing. The teacher could have posted several links to poetry writing websites for the students to learn about such devices (rhyme scheme, alliteration, assonance, personification, metaphor, simile, etc). The last thing that I disliked about this wiki was the lack of student reflection on the poems. The students are instructed to write and then post their poems. It would be great to see a “Reflection” page where students are to choose one or two other poems that they read and write short reflections on them. The teacher could pair them up or put them in small groups to make sure that each poem is reflected on and then have students choose one or two of their own choice.====

Wiki Found on this Website: http://newtoolsworkshop.wikispaces.com/Wikis
**HOME**