ICT+Support+for+Mentors

media type="custom" key="3855557"Greetings Mentors! (sounds a bit like something from Star Trek) I´ve created this page to share with you examples of ´Good Practice´, and other useful tips and opportunities to help us make the most of our Wikis. Please share your discoveries and your disillusions so we can work together as a community to forge our own way of working with WIKIS, and one that is optimum. I will run this page in blog form i.e dated entries in chronological order with the latest post at the top of the page.

//4th June 2009//

Space



Are'nt we lucky to count on what we have?

Mind you, there´s a certain appeal to the busy exhibition above. It´s a very 'Surround' experience. There´s even work hanging from the ceiling!

It´s the spirit that counts.

//2nd June 2009//

Staging The Exhibition Some tips and observations regarding the Exhibition itself:


 * Interesting new applications are appearing on the web ever more frequently.At the [|Exhibition Toolbox] blog I´ve been rounding up some of the most promising ones and recent posts have concentrated on tools which could help groups stage an engaging exhibition.Have a look and see if there´s anything for your group.
 * It would nice to be able to avoid //**Death by PowerPoint**//

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 * One way to do that would be to use Prezi - an amazing new presentation application that leaves behind the constraints of slides and adds a zoom feature.This means you can make stunning __non-linear__ presentations.Find out more at the [|Exhibition Toolbox] blog.
 * Groups could make a new Wiki to share their findings __and promote action__.Yes, two birds with one stone!I Their current Wiki is behind the scenes - it´s the busy, steamy kitchen.The new one is the beautifully laid table on the restaurant floor.Beyond celebrating their learning students could also use the Wiki to evoke change.They could embed visitor counters and create a visitor´s message page to see how far their Wiki reaches.
 * It's very important that groups envisage what audio visual resources they will require in order to mount their show.The school has a given number of Video Beams, Laptops, Extension cables etc. so the A.V. department will need to know as soon as possible what is needed so that any necessary contingency plans can be drawn up in good time.

//26th May 2009//

Managing Pages Now that your students will be __distributing__ their __information__ between __key question pages__ you might find they are left with several empty pages after the task is done. To delete a page that is no longer needed Wiki members should click on //Manage Wiki// then in //content// click on //Pages//. On the far Right hand side of the table on that page there is column called //Actions// click on the drop down menu and you´ll find the delete option. If you only see //Print// then you do not have administrator privileges .To solve this, see the student who set up the Wiki - they´ll be listed as Administrator - and ask them change your status.

 //22nd May 2009//

Polls and Surveys I´ve just posted an entry in the CCB PYP Exhibition Toolbox blog about [|surveys] .A survey conducted via a WIKI using a free web based survey technology could provide a project with some interesting insights.The blog entry has four examples. A survey about people´s perceptions of Insecurity in Cali, for example would be straightforward to set up. The trick would be to create a new WIKI to carry out the survey.This WIKI would be open to all visitors, so the group would avoid having to send out invitations but would not put any of their work at risk.

//20th May 2009// Sharing Interesting Exhibition News If your group is up to anything interesting share it with me and I´ll create a page to pool it all over at the ccbsixthgradenetwork wiki.This way our students can inspire one another with their deeds!

For instance this might be news about an interview with the Head of the Secret Police, a new technology that a certain group is using, an interesting statistic that makes us think twice or a new insight thanks to a survey.

Let´s share what our groups are doing and enhance our exhibition community by increasing student interest in each other´s work.

//20th May 2009//

<span style="display: block; color: rgb(64, 64, 64); text-align: center; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Discussion
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">I recommend that students paste relevant __information__ on to their pages but when they want to leave a __comment__ about it they do so via the __discussion board__. Here´s Why :

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">When you receive notification of a change to a page via your email acount ( i.e. your hotmail, gmail, school webmail etc) you still have to visit the wiki page to see the change. In contrast, when you receive notification of an addition to a discussion or a new discussion you can read the actual message with out having to leave the comfort of your favored email account.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">In Wikispaces Wikis __each page__ that you make __has it's own discussion board__ accessible via the Discussion tab at the top of a given page when that page is open. This enables users to easily organize and follow seperate discussions.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">It is easier to follow a discussion thread on a discussion board than it is to scroll up and down a page looking for replies to a given comment, particularly if that discussion is evolving over a longer period of time.

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(64, 64, 64); text-align: center; display: block;">Initial Observations
//19th May 2009//

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; line-height: 115%; font-size: 10pt;">Judging by the ever increasing avalanche of notification emails that I´m receiving, we are off to a relatively good start. In general, our students have recognized the benefits of using their Wiki and are exploring them ( wishful thinking I hear you shout from the back ...but I insist !) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Our next step forward is to focus on the __quality__ of what they are doing - both in terms of the information they post, and how they organize it. At this stage I have a number of observations that have accumulated to share with you, but please bear with me because in due course postings on this page should thin out:


 * A significant number of students are not __processing information__ before they post it. It appears that they find a page or article that seems relevant and then post the whole thing. Please help them to realize that if they simply move information from one place to another they are scarcely advancing. Their Wiki should be the catch all for information that has been __read and digested__ e.g. The key points of a web page not the entire text.
 * Text is being posted without stating the source. They should always include the link to the source page.
 * Avoid the 'Toilet Roll' effect – some groups are posting everything they deem relevant on one page, in one long scroll . This will probably cause headaches later on when they want to find something. Instead they should sit down and create categories of information they require, and then make a new page for each one.
 * Different posts on a page can be separated by using the horizontal line tool .This can be found on the left hand side of the editor panel near the text formatting buttons – look for the blue horizontal line.
 * When someone creates or edits something if they write what they did in the option bar at the bottom of the page then this will appear in the history page along with their name and the date of the action. It doesn´t take long and is a great help later on when you want to review who did what and when.
 * I´ve created a directory of groups on the ccbsixthgradenetwork wiki so students can visit each other´s Wikis.This is a good opportunity to point out that Home Pages should display a brief welcome message at the top, and,most importantly, the central idea and lines of inquiry. After all, If visitors can see exactly what a group is studying they can help out when they come across relevant information.


 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Ah, and one last thing do try and meet your group with a computer at hand so you can go over their Wiki with them.

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