Future Conference Presentation: Working with Wikis in Education

QuestionI was thinking about conference presentation topics for the spring, but was really engaged with the development of the Web 2.0 for Educators wiki. (I'm hoping that educators are finding the content useful.)  It has been really interesting brainstorming, researching, and talking to other educators, then going back and using the wiki to make some more formal connections to what I have learned.  It is helping me to prepare for some of the workshops that I am
planning to give at my school board, as well as outline ideas for the
future.

The Wiki section is coming along quite nicely and I hope to build a presentation and guidebook for educators, as I did with the RSS Ideas for Educators.  It just seemed to make sense, as I diverted so much of my time from posting to blogs and other things, to editing the wiki, that I should start working on a presentation along those lines.

So, I'm looking for samples of wiki's that are being used at any level within the K-12 education sphere, that is not already listed in the wiki .  Email me, comment, or post your ideas to the new Wiki Presentation Ideas wiki (where I hope to outline the presentation/guide with a more collaborative wikified approach).  Any help would be appreciated!

August 31, 2006 | | Comments Closed

Educator Risk Taking Survey Results (30 Respondents)

Number

Question

Interpretations

True

False

1

Taking risks with new teaching strategies makes good
sense only if you have no other alternatives.
  • To see if
    risk taking was chosen over risk taking that was out of necessity.
  • Most respondents would be considered risk takers
    when trying new teaching strategies.

6.7%

93.3%

2

I generally prefer stimulating students’ imagination
over repetitive tasks.
  • To see if
    stimulating activities (with regards to challenges, growth and
    interest) takes precedence over repetitive tasks in the respondents
    classes.
  • Most respondents chose to stimulate rather than repetitive tasks.

93.3%

6.7%

3

I have confidence in my ability to recover from my
mistakes and the mistakes that my students make in the classroom.
  • To see if
    respondents have confidence in their ability to deal with risks.
  • Most of the respondents felt that they were able
    to deal with the risks that they and their students take.

96.7%

3.3%

4

It is better to ask for permission, than to beg for
forgiveness.
  • To see if
    respondents were willing to take risks beyond those deemed appropriate
    by administrators, SO’s or managerial staff.
  • This answer was quite surprising or perhaps
    not so, close to two-thirds of respondents were more apt to ask
    for
    permission then to beg forgiveness, perhaps this speaks of
    the nature of our profession or the need for individuals
    to define professional boundaries in order to stay professional.

63.3%

36.7%

5

I can tolerate ambiguity and unpredictability well.
  • Both ambiguity
    and unpredictability makes risk taking more challenging. Those
    with the ability to deal with these constraints helps respondent
    risk-takers to deal with any problems when they might occur.
  • Three-quarters of the respondents felt confident
    in their ability to deal with these constraints.

73.3%

26.7%

6

I would rather feel intense disappointment than intense
regret.
  • To see if
    respondents had a drive to take risks, even if they failed, they
    needed to try it.
  • Most respondents had a drive to take risks even
    if they failed perhaps they felt that they needed to know that
    they had tried.

86.7%

13.3%

Number

Question
The next set
of questions was set to establish how the respondents were participating
in the Read/Write Web.

Yes

No

7

Have you used a blog to share your ideas in the last
three months?
  • To see how many
    respondents published on a blog.
  • Three-quarters of respondents published their ideas
    to a blog.

76.7%

23.3%

8

Have you contributed to a wiki in the last three months?
  • To see how
    many respondents contributed to a wiki.
  • A little more than half of the respondents contributed
    to a wiki.

56.7%

43.3%

9

Have you contributed to a podcast in the last three
months?
  • To see how
    many respondents contributed to a podcast.
  • About one-sixth of respondents contributed to a
    podcast.

16.7%

83.3%

10

Have you contributed to a public discussion board/forum
in the last three months?
  • To see how
    many respondents contributed to a discussion board.
  • About three-quarters of respondents contributed
    to a discussion board.

76.7%

23.3%

11

Do you use social bookmarking web sites to store your
bookmarks publicly?
  • To see how
    many respondents used social bookmarking.
  • About three-quarters of respondents used social
    bookmarking tools.

76.7%

23.3%

The Web 2.0 tools that respondents seemed to be more
actively participating in were Blogs, Discussion Boards, and Social Bookmarking, Wikis
had slightly less participation rate, while podcasting was only a rarer
breed of educator.

A few interesting comparisons were between those
who answered False to question 4 and their participation in the read/write
web. 82%
of bloggers and 82% of discussion board users would rather beg
forgiveness then ask permission.

The raw survey data can be found in the following csv and xls
files. Feel free to use the data and come up with your own conclusions.

August 24, 2006 | | 2 Comments »

Bad Behavior has blocked 613 access attempts in the last 7 days.