Civil+War+Wikis

=Civil War Wikis= Created by Rod Alonzo's 7th grade U.S. History Class

Click here for a link to the Civil War Homepage.

Be honest, Abe, learning through wikis is enjoyable.

How It All Happened:
I approached Maureen Sheehan seeking advice as to how I could create a web format in which students would design their own pages and be able to comment on each others' work. She mentioned www.wikispaces.com. After a brief tutorial, I was up and running. My first act was to create a page that would serve as the home base. According to my original plan, all of the students' pages would be linked to my page. Next, I assigned each of my 7th graders to research a particular event from the Civil War; I explained their pages would house all of the fruits of their labor. In addition to composing text that summarized the event, I asked each student to post three pictures and make four links to outside sources. My ultimate goal was for the pages to serve as the genesis for online conversations about each event.

Organizational Challenges:
Sometimes people stonewall when it comes to new technology.

Here are some helpful tips I learned in the process of creating the wikis:
 * assign each student a user name in a common format like : His7-Tom, His7-Sarah, etc.
 * make sure every student writes down his/her password in their planner
 * I had each student create their own wiki, but there is also the option of merely creating a new page on an existing wiki. The advantage of the latter is that, as the creator of the wiki, I have more control. Control becomes important as the student comments begin to roll in.
 * If each student makes his/her own wiki, extra time will be required in order for everyone to join everyone else's wiki.
 * Before the final due date of the assignment, our class conducted a peer review of all of the wikis. By viewing each other's work, the students had a sense of what their fellow classmates were up to. I felt this spurred some of the more spartan efforts into being more elaborate.