1. Blogs and Wikis and
Kids . . . Oh My!
Teresa Wells, Valerie Kuykendall
Mesquite ISD
2. Once Upon a Time . . .
• there was a school
• there was a librarian
• there was a teacher
3. Everything was serene.
• The school ran smoothly.
• The library overflowed with teachers
and kids and overdue notices.
• The teacher was overrun with
paperwork and testing and parents.
• It was a typical, run-of-the-mill Texas
school.
4. And then along came
Trouble.
• It was called 23 Things.
• It upset the apple cart.
• It caused all kinds of change to happen.
• To the librarian.
• To the school.
• To the teacher.
5. And no one was ever the
same again.
• Not the librarian.
• Not the school.
• And certainly not the teacher.
6. And this is the story.
• Main Characters: Teresa Wells and
Valerie Kuykendall
• Librarian: Teresa Wells (19 years
experience, 9 in the library)
• Teacher: Valerie Kuykendall (8 years
experience, all in 5th grade)
7. Teresa’s story
• Wanted to bring Web 2.0 tools to
research
• Two teachers took the challenge
• Why not Valerie?
12. Valerie saw the light.
• It took a little cajoling, but Valerie came
around.
• Teresa taught Valerie what she hadn’t
learned yet in 23 Things
• And then Valerie saw what Teresa had
been seeing . . .
13.
14. Why blogs and wikis?
• NCLB standard accountability: STaR
Chart
• Technology TEKS
• Librarians often set the standard for
technology use in classrooms
• Our students are digital natives
17. What did we do?
• We planned!
• We set expectations
• Teresa set up the wiki and blog pages
• Valerie got the content of the unit
together (Civil War), based on 5th grade
TEKS
18. And . . .
• We decided on a date
• How long the unit would last -- how
many days in the library, in the
classroom, reserved the laptops
• Teresa scheduled the library
• Valerie divided classes into groups of 3
or 4 and assigned them to subtopics
(slavery, etc.)
19. How did we use wikis and
blogs?
• To organize the unit, we used the wiki
• http://
jrthompsoncivilwar.wikispaces.com
25. Just to name a few...
• “We can’t get online, Miss!”
• “My laptop’s not charged!”
• “Not a fire drill NOW!”
• “I saved my work! Where is it?”
• “I hate this stupid wiki!” (Mrs. Wells)
27. Lots of learning took place
• ...and not just history!
• Lots of technology skills were applied:
• copied, pasted, and cut text; posted on
wiki and blog; saved; moved images;
made a tab; moved between tabs to
access information; searched for
websites; evaluated books/sites; linked
info; keyboarded
30. You’ve heard it from us.
Now hear it from the kids.
• In their words, written in all earnestness,
un-spellchecked and just the way they
wrote it.
• When asked which method of research
was more effective for them, this is what
they said.
31.
32. • “It’s fun and easy.”
• “I think that letting us use the wiki gives
us a chance to have responsibility. By
doing the wiki we can show people what
we learned, and that 5th graders are
mature.”
• “I think it is much more successful &
easier to use the wiki & blog.”
33.
34. • “I don’t really like paper and pencil. It’s
lots of work and you can lose your
research. While on the computer you
can save stuff on it. If we have
technology we should use it for a
purpose.”
35.
36.
37. • “I think this is training us for the future.
I mean lets face it we are in the computer
age.”
• “I think I like the computers better
because using teachnoigy helps me
better. Also because you get to go to
sites, and see other peoples feeling about
them”
