Please Excuse me while I wiki my moodle...

Wikis, Moodles, Blogs...who thought these names up anyway?

As I've stated in class, my idea for my final project is a collaborative research project incorporating a wiki, a blog, and voicethread (which will probably then make flickr necessary). We will research topics related to one of two novels and create voicethread presentations based on our findings, which we will then post to a course wiki.

The really fun part of the wiki is going to be when we start using it to debate the ethics of Charlie's surgery in "Flowers for Algernon". We've just finished part I of the story and are already getting some nice discussions that touch on ethics based on how others have begun to treat Charlie. Over the next few days (weeks?? who knows with the limited availability of computers) we will learn the ins and outs of the class wiki by debating different ethical dilemmas. Last year, we did this in a course discussion format, which was marginally successful, but as I discovered with blogs, some students will be more apt to participate in the written format. Since much of the content will be old, we can focus more on the logistics of the wiki...at least at first.

I'm hoping that our course wiki will be an ongoing thing this year that will bring a lot of good resources to the students for each unit we study. This will not only help them as we study for tests, learn strategies for research, and practice literacy skills for the MCAs; but will also help me prepare for next year when we do all of this over again. I'll have models of work to show, experience to share, and a chance to revamp things that don't work the first time around.