How to use Wikis in the Classroom

What is a wiki?
A wiki is at its essence a website that continually be edited and developed upon my multiple individuals.  With a wiki, not only is a viewer able to look at the material provided, but can become and editor and provide insight and information.  A wiki is always under construction. Perhaps we have all heard of the most popular wiki, Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.  This is an online reference with no one author but many, many, contributors.  More information and details about what a wiki is can be found here.

How can I  use them in my classroom? 

Within classrooms, we have multiple ways wiki's can benefit the education process.  One very obvious thought i have for the use of wiki's in the classroom, are group projects.  There can be constant updating and working from remote locations.  This aids in being able to work outside of the classroom, and addresses issues that students may face in having transportation.  

We can also use wiki's as an educational tool.  It allows for basic website editing skills to be learned.  If you are technology based classroom and you have an educational standard to reach on teaching basic web editing, wiki would be a great place to start. 

In agriculture classrooms we often look for new ways to develop the use of technology for our students.  Wikis can be used to help that.  In the Vet Science unit students are encouraged to participate in a Vet Science SAE project.  That project can be tracked and recorded using a wiki to present a usable website at the end of the project.  

Review of "A Day in the Life of An AG Teacher Blog"

A Day in the Life of An Ag Teacher, is a blog focusing on the experiences of agriculture teachers in the United States.  The blog is sponsored by National Association of Agricultural Educators.  There are multiple authors from around the United States represented on this blog. As seen on the map, you can see the dispersal of the  blog authors. This provides a different perspective with each blog, of different issues and solutions in agriculture education around the world.  

It is difficult to find a sizable number of quality agriculture education based blogs.  I often wonder if that is attributed to the perception of agriculture teachers being “older men who do not like computers.” I wonder if this stereotype plays into the reality as to why there are not a significant amount of agriculture teacher blogs.  I also wonder if the lack of blogs and online resources for agriculture education aids in providing misconceptions about agriculture education being “in the past” compared to other subject areas.  

As you can see in the image here, the blog has a vast variety of information. It provides us with new resources, lesson plans, and experiences of teachers around the united states. The blog gives specific details to what works in different areas.   The blog also gives us a platform to find curriculum guidelines.  Curriculum standards are similar across all states, so we can easily pull lesson plans to guide our thought processes.  As well as make changes in the classroom quickly and effectively as plans can change on the fly every day.  

This was a fun take away from one of the blog posts.  It discussed comfort and distractions in a classroom.  This teacher had a fun creative way to handle cell phone usage in the classroom.  

As teachers we all look for sources of information.  Blogs are a creative way for us to share information.  A Day in the Life of an Ag Teacher, is a good quality ag teacher blog.  I would highly recommend this blog to anyone in the agriculture education filed.  

Meet the Heifer

My name is Jessica Wilkinson.  I am an Agriculture Education graduate student in the Agriculture Education licensure program.  I was born and raised in Smithdale, MS.  After graduating Mississippi State University with a Bachelor's of Science in Agribusiness and Economics, I moved to east Tennessee to enter the real world.  I work full time for the University of Tennessee Extension Service in Roane County, TN as an Adult Agriculture Extension Agent.  So, with working full time and going to graduate school full time, it makes life a little busy.  In my little free time, I make time for those that I care about the most; my family, friends, and dogs.

Throughout this course I hope to expand my knowledge of incorporating technology into my classroom.  Currently I work with adults, so I hope to learn ways not to only incorporate information into my future classroom, but also my current "classroom."  As an extension agent my classroom changes daily, it could be my office, a structured classroom, a front yard, a back porch, or even a pasture.  My job of teaching is different and learning ways to bring technology to different learning methods will prove beneficial.

Having a large family makes for big fun!

The adorable Trixie and Polly

Friends and Goats make life better!

Boyfriend, Chris and Myself