Wiki for maths learning

Whitefriars College teacher librarian Karen Kearney has developed a resourceful wiki to support Maths learning and teaching.

Wiki Maths

Our WFC Learning Together Wiki was set up to support learning for those students in the Learning Support program. We hoped that it would encourage, engage and motivate them to contribute and learn from one another. The literacy parts of the Wiki have been working very well with lots of interaction between the students and teachers. Just recently, we have turned our attention to seeing how we can use the Wiki as part of the Maths Learning Support program.

Helen Sapardanis, the Maths Learning Support teacher, has devised several posters full of practical hints to help our students study for their maths tests, take notes within their maths classes, and to encourage them to think much more positively about maths. Our students have access to these posters at any time.

The Maths percentages task was another thought provoking task devised by Helen. A blank template for this can be found on the Wiki. Students were asked to consider, and write, the processes they were required to take in order to convert percentages into decimals, and percentages into fractions. We have placed one student response on the Wiki as an example.

I have created several Maths quizzes using Hot Potatoes, and there is also a link on the Wiki to these quizzes for the boys to do if they finish their work early. More will be added as they are created. I am hoping that the boys will gradually compile their own quizzes for me to add.

Helen and I really wanted to get the students thinking about the processes they had used to arrive at their answers, and so we decided to start a “How Do I Do It?” section. Helen would devise a maths question, relating to the teaching that she had been doing that day, and it was placed on the Wiki. Students would be required to think through the steps they should use, and then write them, step by step, in the discussion box. Putting their steps into words is not an easy task for many of the students and we’ve been really pleased by the understandings that they have shown.

When we were just starting to place maths equations on the Wiki it occurred to me that the writing of equations was not the simple task I had imagined. My first attempts had me writing “x squared” for instance. Very frustrating when that wasn’t what students were used to seeing! I ended up writing each equation in Microsoft Word, taking a screen grab, converting the equation into a .jpg then loading that onto the Wiki. Fortunately I soon discovered that one of the languages supported by Wikispaces is Latex, and the writing of maths equations became quite simple. Maths Tutorials Parts 1 and 2 proved to be very helpful.

Our aim is for the wiki to be a vibrant, interactive space, where the boys are happy to contribute their ideas and knowledge, and are proud of their contributions. We have been very happy with how our “Wiki Maths” has been progressing and Helen and I will continue to develop it more next year.

What a terrific example of how teachers can use their own area of expertise to work together to improve learning and teaching! Well done Karen and Helen. Very impressive.

Clairvaux Library wiki

Clairvaux Catholic Primary School teacher librarian Pam Niewman has shown what a fantastic educator she is by developing this brilliant wiki in a very short space of time.

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Pam explains

The wiki is the backbone of my teaching at the moment and it develops along with our needs. It’s very primary orientated and by no means complete  – it even gets some things deleted/changed at times. However, like a tap dripping slowly, Web 2.0 is filtering throughout our school . . .

We are still continuing small steps at a time.

The wiki is gradually becoming a very useful tool and something that the children are beginning to refer to and use on a regular basis. I often use it as a teaching tool in my lessons from Prep to Year 6. The children have a link to it on our MyClasses page and the staff have a link on their desktop.

The use of the wiki and various web 2.0 tools is beginning to filter throughout the school – in addition to work done in library classes, we’re up to about 90 children now who have engaged in some form of after hours activities as either creators or responders. I’ve had many emails – some requiring advice, some informing me of what they have done or sending me links, and some just communicating about things they are enjoying.

As more children are beginning to show an interest in displaying their work on the wiki I have decided to set up a Student Work page in addition to incorporating their work into other appropriate pages.

Recently some Book Week activities created some learning opportunities.

  • Children began emailing to be the first to answer a question a day about a shortlisted book. This question became hotly discussed as children tried to be the first online with the correct answer. (Side effect – Use of email improved particularly with younger children)
  • Wallwishers which I set up to discuss the Book Week theme and related activities created interest with the Seniors, who then began creating their own. These were posted on MyClasses and the wiki and the discussions began . . . and then more …and more . . .  They added videos and websites  (Side effect – online mentoring, classroom teachers added comments, good questions had to be developed)
  • Some children who saw my Book Week ToonDoo cartoon tried some out for themselves and emailed their link to me.
  • A few children found a link to Picasso Head on the wiki (via Schumann the Shoeman activities) and tried it out.
  • Book Trailers – Two Year 4 boys created a book trailer for visiting author Justin D’Ath. A number of children who saw this on the wiki now want to try creating their own.
  • Screen shot 2010-10-30 at 6.53.37 AM
  • A year 4 girl wrote and published on the wiki an excellent biography of Justin D’Ath, based on a talk he gave to her class during Book Week.
  • Some children have begun adding book reviews.
  • During their Inquiry unit, two year 6 boys made a web page to make people aware of the plight of the children in the Pakistan floods. A link to this was put on the wiki.
  • As a spin off from these activities, I now have lots of evidence for assessment and report writing.

There is a growing awareness and some curiosity now amongst the staff about Web 2.0 and I have been asked to do some PD and share ideas with the staff next year. As well, I have the opportunity to further develop both my own and the children’s web 2.0 skills next year in my teaching. I think the wiki will develop according to the paths we take and the tools we explore.

My goals for next year are to continue learning about Web 2.0 so that I can provide opportunities to embed the use of appropriate Web 2.0 tools in the learning and teaching of students and staff in our school.

Pam points out that she is by no means an expert (I think she is) and that she is experimenting with the development and use of the wiki. I think she’s done a brilliant job and I am sure the wiki will continue to grow and evolve over time. Please take the opportunity to browse through Pam’s wiki. It is truly amazing what she has accomplished in a couple of terms.

Supporting learning through reading lists

Librarian extraordinaire Dr Joyce Valenza has (yet another) great idea for supporting and encouraging reading in her school.

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By developing this wiki with reading lists, information on texts, study guides, rubrics, book trailers, book reviews, directions and general requirements, students in years 9-12 (and their parents) have a head start on the year’s required reading for English classes.

What a terrific way for students to be prepared for the year ahead. As always, Dr Valenza’s wiki is an example that we can use as a basis to develop our own ideas for supporting our students’ learning.

Suggest a book

I really love the way that Monarch Academy Elementary (Primary) Librarian Keisa Williams has incorporated Google forms into her already excellent library wiki.

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Students get involved in the library and get experience using web 2.0 tools such as Google Docs, while Keisa gets an organised documents with records of all student requests, along with names, date of request and so on.

Another clever idea from Keisa; one that is relatively easy to implement.

Protect, Nurture, Grow with Web 2.0

Mount Eliza Secondary College Librarian Lynn Swannell has developed an excellent presentation for her staff on how using Web 2.0 with students can help ‘protect, nurture and grow’.
Lynn explains:

I was asked to do a presentation about Web2.0 for our staff during the ‘Ultranet’ training day – plan B!

In putting the presentation together I tried to look at how I could link Web2.0 to our school motto of “Protect, Nurture, Grow” and also incorporate alot of what I had learnt during the program. I was quite pleased with the result and had lots of positive feedback from our staff.   There have been lots of requests for up-coming ICTuesday PD sessions which is great and I made sure to ‘plug’ the ‘Sharing eLearning at MESC’ wiki that I created earlier in the program.  A number of departments have now created their own wikis to share information amongst staff within their departments, as well as some classroom wikis happening – I did tell them that they can be addictive once you get started!

View more presentations from Lynn Swannell.

I’m going to send staff a weekly email of links that I’ve found via Twitter and various blogs (including Bright Ideas) and added to the ‘Sharing eLearning‘ wiki to keep up the interest.

Thanks Lynn for willingly sharing your excellent work yet again with readers of Bright Ideas.

2010 K12 online conference

This fantastic free online conference officially kicks off on October 18th (US time). With over 40 sessions on “innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used can be used to improve learning” there’s sure to be at least several sessions to interest every educator.

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The conference provides a wiki for session details, scheduling information and time zone details, a blog for announcements and a ning for registration and continuing the conversation. You can also follow the conversations via Twitter and Facebook.

In 2009 all sessions were available via iTunes for free downloading as well, so that if you have a mobile device, you can access these terrific sessions anywhere, anytime. This is sure to be repeated once the conference concludes.

This is a professional learning opportunity not to be missed.

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

Andrew Churches has developed this fantastic interpretation of Bloom’s taxonomy for the digital era.

Blooms

His wiki also contains a number of PDFs that include more information about the taxonomy as well as comprehensive presentations.

This chart, which features on the wiki, is an excellent ready reference for you to see how tasks such as commenting on blogs fits into Bloom’s taxonomy.

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Concept map

There is much more to explore in this informative and broad wiki. Thank you to Andrew for permission to feature his wiki here.

Wikis and Wordles @ Whitefriars College

Wordle and Tagxedo – on a Wiki and in class
http://wfc-learning-together.wikispaces.com/Year+9+-+Truman+Show
I work very closely with the Learning Support team at my school and we are always looking for ways to present material to our students that is engaging and motivating.  We began using a Ning with our Year 8 and 9 students this year, and decided to have a supporting Wiki, originally for our Year 7 boys.  With Ning moving to pay only, I decided to trial how discussions would work on our Wiki and the following activity was developed.
I wanted some graphics to add to our Truman Show section and created word clouds using Wordle www.wordle.net and Tagxedo www.tagxedo.com.  I used two different summaries of the film as the text to create these graphics.  Both were saved as .jpegs and uploaded to our Learning Together Wiki http://wfc-learning-together.wikispaces.com/ .
Although most students had not begun discussing the film in their English class, we explored the two word clouds together.  I explained how they had been created, and that the larger the word in the graphic, the more it appeared in the text that I had placed into the text box.  Therefore those larger words would probably be more important.
We began by comparing the two graphics.  Which words seemed more prominent?  Were these prominent words the same in each graphic?  We then brainstormed different words they suggested, focusing on the larger ones, and these were written on the white board.  By looking at the words they had chosen students could see that there was a media theme to the film.  Words like “soundstage”, “network”, “TV”, “scripted” and “audience” indicated that the film might have something to do with a television show.  Several students picked up the word “zoolike” in the Tagxedo, and this led to some animated discussion as to why that particular word might be included. “Seahaven” was large and students felt perhaps this was where Truman lived, or wanted to go.  “Unwanted” and “prisoner” were also words that were discussed, and we pondered on why they might be included in a summary.
Students were then asked to write just a couple of sentences predicting what they thought the film might be about now that they had analysed both the Wordle and the Tagxedo.  Their responses are in the Discussion Forum connected with that page.  Each class had their own thread, although they were allowed to read those responses from other classes once they had posted.
This was a simple, fun activity for the students, which they all enjoyed.  The Wordle and Tagxedo provided a springboard for a class discussion, analysis and prediction.    Students were interested to know how to create their own word clouds so links were provided.  Several asked for more details about how Wikis worked and how they were created, thinking ahead to how they could use them in the future.
We will continue to use the Wiki as a place to explore The Truman Show further during term 3.  Learning Support staff have created notes, character summaries and quotes, which are on the wiki http://wfc-learning-together.wikispaces.com/Year+9+-+Truman+resources and these will help students as they continue their work on The Truman Show.
Whitefriars College teacher librarian Karen Kearney has developed some interesting resources to support learning and teaching. Karen explains:
I work very closely with the Learning Support team at my school and we are always looking for ways to present material to our students that is engaging and motivating.  We began using a Ning with our Year 8 and 9 students this year, and decided to have a supporting Wiki, originally for our Year 7 boys.  With Ning moving to pay only, I decided to trial how discussions would work on our Wiki and the following activity was developed.
Learning together wiki

Learning together wiki

I wanted some graphics to add to our Truman Show section and created word clouds using Wordle and Tagxedo.  I used two different summaries of the film as the text to create these graphics.  Both were saved as .jpegs and uploaded to our Learning Together Wiki.
Screen shot 2010-08-22 at 8.12.50 AM
Although most students had not begun discussing the film in their English class, we explored the two word clouds together.  I explained how they had been created, and that the larger the word in the graphic, the more it appeared in the text that I had placed into the text box.  Therefore those larger words would probably be more important.
Screen shot 2010-08-22 at 8.16.18 AM
We began by comparing the two graphics.  Which words seemed more prominent?  Were these prominent words the same in each graphic?  We then brainstormed different words they suggested, focusing on the larger ones, and these were written on the white board.  By looking at the words they had chosen students could see that there was a media theme to the film.  Words like “soundstage”, “network”, “TV”, “scripted” and “audience” indicated that the film might have something to do with a television show.  Several students picked up the word “zoolike” in the Tagxedo, and this led to some animated discussion as to why that particular word might be included. “Seahaven” was large and students felt perhaps this was where Truman lived, or wanted to go.  “Unwanted” and “prisoner” were also words that were discussed, and we pondered on why they might be included in a summary.
Students were then asked to write just a couple of sentences predicting what they thought the film might be about now that they had analysed both the Wordle and the Tagxedo.  Their responses are in the Discussion Forum connected with that page.  Each class had their own thread, although they were allowed to read those responses from other classes once they had posted.
This was a simple, fun activity for the students, which they all enjoyed.  The Wordle and Tagxedo provided a springboard for a class discussion, analysis and prediction.    Students were interested to know how to create their own word clouds so links were provided.  Several asked for more details about how Wikis worked and how they were created, thinking ahead to how they could use them in the future.
We will continue to use the Wiki as a place to explore The Truman Show further during term 3.  Learning Support staff have created notes, character summaries and quotes, which are on the wiki and these will help students as they continue their work on The Truman Show.
Thanks Karen for sharing this terrific idea which I’m sure will inspire others.

Make, Share, Do Smackdown wiki

The final session of the School Library Association of Victoria Make, Share, Do conference held on Friday 30th July was a smackdown. A wiki was developed with resources for people interested in accessing resources for:

  • information fluency
  • digital citizenship
  • digital storytelling
  • reading 2.0
  • network building

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Wallwisher walls were developed for each topic with conference delegates encouraged to add their own favourite sites, tools and ideas.

New tools workshop wiki

Joyce Valenza has done it again. This time she and David Warlick have created a vibrant and informative wiki that showcases new social media tools for learning.

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With pages covering topics such as:

  • WallWisherIdeas
  • Backchannel
  • PlayaroundPage
  • What is 2.0?
  • Learning more
  • Fair Use and InfoEthics
  • Curriculum and Standards
  • Playing with images
  • Wikis
  • Blogs
  • Digital storytelling
  • Avatar Making
  • Podcasting
  • Video Tools
  • Writing Tools
  • Twitter
  • Nings, Social Networking, PLNs
  • Book Publishing
  • Social Bookmarking
  • Polling Quizzing tools
  • Interactive calendars
  • Personal information portals
  • Skype & Webinar Stuff
  • Search Tools
  • Assorted Widgets
  • Cartoon Generators
  • BackChannel and Chat
  • Map Apps
  • URL Shorteners
  • Media Literacy
  • On evaluating information
  • Game Generators
  • PowerPoint Reform Tools
  • Media parking lots
  • Feeds and aggregators
  • Miscellaneous other goodies
  • Mind Mapping, timelining, outlining, graphing, visualizing
  • Reading
  • ebook pathfinder
  • Screen Capture Apps
  • Interactive Whiteboards
  • iphoneapps
  • iPad
  • Privacy safety identity
  • To get you organized
  • Springfield Township High School Library
  • Teacher Tools

there is something for everyone interested in educational technology. As with any wiki, the New Tools Workshop wiki is a work in progress that will grow and evolve over time. Congratulations to Joyce and David on a wonderful site.