Thing 7

As Elmer Fudd would say, "I weally wove wikis!" My first experience with wikis was this school year. I was introduced to the Barrow County Schools middle school math resources wiki that the math teachers would be using to post lessons/activities/skillbuilders/etc. The site is protected so that only members can edit the pages. Before this lesson, I did not really understand the operations of this wiki, or any wiki for that matter. I somehow joined a 7th grade math wiki because I received an invitation. Now I know what that means! Since then, I have subscribed to the feeds of both these wikis and am joining the Barrow County wiki. I hope to be uploading math activities as I find/create them so that all middle school math teachers in the county can make use of them if they so choose. That's why I'm here.
Okay, back to the original questions. From the list of wikis Caroline provided, I chose the ones that had something to do with math. Primary math was just darling! The most awesome thing about this site is the way classrooms from around the world can participate! And it was so easy to follow! The kindergarten counting book was just as precious but not as interactive. There were a few discussion posts, but I guess the content is rather simplistic for much else. I was impressed with Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio. Mr. Lee says, "the objective of this project is to create an electronic portfolio that clearly and concisely explains these outcomes and connects each outcome with a sample problem. By using a wiki located on the world wide web, students can collaborate to develop these explanations and then share them with each other." I looked at several of the students' explanations, but the important parts to me were Mr. Lee's responses to his students' work and how students can learn from each other! How awesome is that? I also visited the TeachersFirst wiki and will certainly go back and read more carefully this content about setting up and protecting wikis.
Right now, I don't know what I would do differently or how I would make these wikis better. I need more exposure to and experience with wikis. I'll have to get back to you on that.