I love the idea of an online conference! I watched a presentation from 2009. The content was great, but the quality of the video was poor. Honestly, it would have worked better as a simple podcast. The video was blurry, and I was unable to read what was on her screen. Maybe this means I need glasses, or maybe it means that before we post things on the Internet, we should make sure that there is a purpose, and there is quality in the work we are creating and sharing.

The content of her website explores the questions that we all are wondering in our head– when does a wiki become a valuable tool to learning instead of just a cool thing to do with the kids? She explores the concepts of collaboration and sharing and discusses the difference between the two- Wikis are great for both, but, in collaboration, wikis can actually help people create new ideas that they would have been able to come up with without someone else.

There was also a lot of discussion about authenticity. The best student work comes from an original project that has the student invested in the outcome. She showed examples of political (student created) wikis, a video game review wiki, and a book wiki– all were created by students on their own. These wikis were much better that the wikis she assigned.

So how do we, in our own classrooms, create that culture of learning and growing with the use of wikis?

How can we still create assignments but still give the students the authenticity that they need to be invested?