Wiki Wonderland!

• Is there a particular example of a classroom wiki which inspired you?  Yes, I spent an hour and a half one evening this week checking out The Flat Classroom Project.  These two ladies, Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools, USA) and Julie Lindsay (Beijing (BISS) International School, China), did an incredible job collaborating globally as they challenged students to dig deeper into Thomas Friedman's "flatteners" from his book, The World is Flat. I'd like to wind up this year with activities inmy Web Page classes that model after this project.  But wow, the sites and tools they used are just a tad confusing!  Ning, Word Press, Blogger, Wikispaces - I'll have to spend a bit more time analyzing their purpose for each before I dive in!  Oh, by the way, Vicki Davis maintains the Cool Cat Teacher wiki!  How cool is that?
• What was most challenging about creating a wiki together as a group in
  Activity 4-C-1?   Trying to be consistent with each others' choices of font, size, color, and other format options.  Keeping the headings consistent makes the information more organized and easy to peruse and helps with the overall appearance of the wiki.  But I didn't want to change everyone's work because of my preferences.  I tried not to sweat the small stuff - the color blue is not that important, after all!
• What did you learn from the group wiki project?  The amount of resources collected was amazing!  When three people are searching for Internet Safety links for the wiki, the number of useful links that I've never seen (and I think Ive seen them all, of course) is incredible.  I loved being able to collaborate on the Delicious stacks we made.  So easy!  Make the stack, invite contributors, post the link on the wiki, and just simply tags sites as you find them.  Everything feeds and builds the resource for viewers.  Awesome collaboration with Chris and Kellie!
• Has your opinion of Wikipedia changed at all this week? No, but I was a fan from the start.  I'm a Wikipedia author, though I don't consistently contribute.  So I know how Wikipedia's soft-policing policies, like Neutral Point of View works.  For school projects, I have always encouraged students to explore Wikipedia along with other resources.  When I introduce new content, I often post a link to Wikipedia which defines "blogs" for instance, then as a class we follow the external links and resources listed to explore the topic further.
• Are you encountering resistance to using wikis in your class, either from others or from yourself? If so, how do you plan to respond?  Yes, I have one student, a gifted young man, who is very nervous about his work being erased.  I reassured him and explained about revision histories.  But he still looks very doubtful!  He's been my hardest sell all year, which I don't mind at all.  His questions, his doubts, his resistance, and his reluctance have helped me get focused as well as help me better explain my learning targets and purpose to the class.  You know who you are, Travis!

Wait!  Is it Wikipedia or WikipediA?   Hmm...