Technology gets me Excited!

I don't know what it is, but technology really excites me. It can even be useless technology.

But when something comes along that I feel has a great application to my work or my life, I get really excited and I can't wait to try it.

That's what happened this weekend when I finally decided to dig in and see what Google Wave was all about.

Now I still don't think I really know what's up with the Wave, but the picture is becoming clearer to me. You see, to me--if I understand correctly what a wiki can do--Google Wave is like a wiki on steroids.  I was excited this week to learn and scheme about how I can use wikis in my classroom, now I am really excited.

I can't show you my Wave because it isn't available for public launch yet. If I link to it here at my own computer, it automatically takes you to my personal list of Waves, so if you want to go to the information site, watch a video on it or something, well,  just Google it.

I may be wrong but the Wave is going to be big. It is like a wiki in many ways and, in fact, after looking at the various wiki applications available, might have exactly the same sort of things a wiki has: the ability to have a number of people collaborate on a document, the ability to add links, pictures, video, maps, etc., to said document, and the ability to control who is allowed to do all of these thing to the document.

I think the advantage of Google Wave are not necessarily what it does now, but what it might do in the future. Since the project is open source, Google will have thousands of people putting their creative energies to work to find ways to make cool applications for Wave. In fact, they already have quite a few: You can play Sudoku, chess, plan a trip, and many other things I can't recall. Oh, you can even have a weather widget or a poll inside the document.

Google wave is going to be big, and I am excited, but for now I have created a page on Wikispaces.
My page is called What's the What? and refers to a saying I have to help my students remember a grammar rule.

I chose Wikispaces because it had a clean and simple user interface and that is important because I know 8th graders very well, and if there is any little roadblock to using something, they will give up and figure they have a good excuse for not having accomplished anything. Wikispaces looked simpler than Wetpaint  and PBworks mysteriously didn't work for me. When I got the email that I needed to click to activate my account, it never went to my account. Oh, well.

My first page on Wikispaces is a simple page for students to collaborate on understanding, defining, and providing examples of metaphors and similes, a skill they that is part of the 8th grade language arts curriculum.   I figure that we could collect quite a data base that would rival anything I tell them to write down in their notes. Not only that, but I don't have to do all the thinking! They get to think!

This note-type wiki is the most obvious and I imagine, most common use of a wiki; however, I am also excited about the implications for students to discuss literature, ask questions, answer other's questions, and otherwise interact with the text in a higher-ordered thinking kind of way.

I also think there is something that I can do on a wiki that will make writing essays a more valuable experience for them too. I have to investigate that a bit more though. If anyone has a step-by-step tutorial on how to use a wiki to teach students essay skills, I am all ears.

The use of wikis in general address a number of technology standards: Students will be communicating and collaborating (standard 2), they will be strengthening research and information fluency skills (standard 3), they will engage in critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making (standard 4), they will be participating in digital citizenship (standard 5) and they will be strengthening their overall technology skills (standard 6). Wiki's are great on so many levels!

Check out wiki's, catch Google's Wave!