Evaluation+of+a+Wiki

** Assignment #2 ** ** Evaluating an Educational Wiki: WWI Visualization/Poetry Project ** http://wwipoetry.wikispaces.com/
 * Courtney Verellen **

**1. Who designed the wiki?** The site was created by Mr. McDowell at West Hills High School

**2. Who is the wiki for?** The site is for his students in his history class.

**3. What is the purpose of the wiki?** It appears that this part of a student project on learning about WWI. The students would have to create a poem from WWI as if they were a soldier during the era. The wiki is where the students have to display their work.

**4. What subject(s) is the wiki for?** Mr. McDowell’s US History class.

**5. What are the main contents included?** He gives the task that the students are supposed to create the poem based off of a soldier’s perspective and incorporating pieces that they’ve read in class. After the student has posted his/her poem, then he/she is supposed to find five pictures that relate to his/her poem. He also has a “process” section where he gives detailed instructions on how students are supposed to post their poems to the wiki. Another part is that he provides examples of poems from other students.

**6. How do the participants contribute to the wiki?** The students are submitting their poems, so they have to go to their appropriate hour, find their name, and submit their work under their name on the wiki. Again, he gives students proper directions on how to do this.

**7. Do you think the wiki serves its purposes well or not?** I really enjoy this activity and the wiki for allowing students to actually “publish” their work to. Having students create the poem and then put it online lends an accountability to the students so that they make sure they have their work finished and can properly display it for others to see.

**8. Report a thing or two you like and dislike about the wiki.** I really like the concept of this wiki; the task of creating a poem based off of a soldier’s perspective is actually something that I already do in my US History class. I haven’t really thought of the idea of having the students publish them, so this is something that I would do with my students, too. Another part I really like is that he provides thorough instructions for students on how to do the assignment and offers realistic examples for them to use. There really isn’t anything I dislike about this wiki. A possible improvement could be for the students to also have to comment on poems by other students so as to make sure that the students are interacting with one another and actually reading each other’s work.