Student+Projects

http://1000names.wikispaces.com/ - this is a really simple wiki, but it is cool for what it can offer kids and how it can reach so many people. The basic concept was simple. The teacher taught first and second grade and the kids wanted to know what 1,000 was. Admittedly, numbers are a hard concept for kids. The teacher set up this simple wiki page that people could go to and edit by adding their name. Once 1,000 names were reached, the teacher could show the kids what 1,000 looked like. It is so important for kids to understand the importance of numbers that big. An understanding of what 1,00 is will lead to better, more concerned citizens when they get older and hear of war statistics or even begin to learn about the holocaust. Then it’s no longer a random number but a list of names that can be looked at to give real meaning to the number of people who die in tragedies or due to hate. That seems to me to be the best way to make something meaningful. In fact, it seems like an excellent way to teach kids about the holocaust and give it real meaning in a time when it’s so far behind us and kids hear about it so much that I feel it’s losing some of its significance. http://smithmonsters.wikispaces.com/monsterprocess09 - this is an example of how classes across the country can be connected with each other and learn from each other. This is a simple yearly competition between elementary classes to see who can build the best, biggest monster. This is an excellent way for kids to feel connected to other kids they may never meet or see and it’s a great way to acclimate them to the globalized world they will soon enter. It’s also a good way for parents to see what their children do at school. http://adamsnews.wikispaces.com/#xmas – this site is wiki entirely maintained by the students. Giving students’ freedom to create and take responsibility for their work is an excellent way to teach them and it seems that at this school kids are creative and everyone gets to share in creating the wiki. At the bottom of each page is the name of the kids who created it, which leads to a sense of responsibility, and the pages turned out very well.