Creating a Wiki

 Week 3 Reflection

Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0 and Wikis

     This assignment this week was the most challenging and definitely the most time consuming for me so far. I know this reflection is supposed to be more about the wiki but something has to be said about that article. It was so confusing. It took me a very long time to find a section that I felt like I actually understood and do it justice summarizing it.  I re-read that article many times and I felt like it was speaking a different language that I certainly did not understand.I am not even sure if what I did was really what Dr. Horvits was looking for.
    Moving on to the wiki. It was not that hard to set up but I had to play around a little bit. Especially when I created a new page within the wiki.  Wikis are not new to me. The school district I used to work for had a Wiki page for all the elementary teachers. It was a place where we could access resources and certain teachers or administrators who were in leadership positions could add to it. Also, one of my former colleagues talked about a class Wiki he set up for his 5th grade students. He often shared how he was using it for different projects. The students really got into it and I believe they were at a good age where they could handle it.
      This is the challenge I am constantly running into as we are trying these new things out. How can a Kindergartener use a Wiki? I know they can't do it independently so it would be a matter of getting parents involved, which let's be honest, can be difficult at times. It's one thing to get the students involved and excited it's another when you have to rely on the parents to help them. I am not giving up on the Wiki just yet. I do see some potential, but again, it involves the parents.
   Here is my big idea for my Wiki. It's much like my idea for my blog, but it seems more practical to use it in a Wiki format. I want to set it up as a place for resources for parents. But the wonderful thing about the Wiki is that it does not have to just be resources from me. It can be resources from other parents too. It can be a great way to connect parents and use their skills and ideas too. I am actually very excited about this. I teach virtually and we are always trying to find a way to get connected. This would be a great way for me to be able to help parents, but also parents helping eachother out too. They work so closely with their students and curriculum that they are learning tips tricks and techniques too. They also may have resources they have found to be helpful and can add them to the Wiki.
   So far, the Wiki looks like it will be the most useful and helpful to my families compared to the RSS Feed and the Blog, at least for me.  I already started playing around with this idea and created a resources page on my Wikis main page. It's a very small start but I wanted to learn how to link a new page and add files. So check out my Wiki if you want to see what I started. parsonsclassconnection.pbworks.com