Week 7, Thing #16, Wikis

The Princeton Public Library BookLoversWiki gives me an idea...the sharing I suggested a few posts ago concerning reviews of appropriate adult for high school books should be done in a wiki. Once I have completed this THING, I will certainly know everything I should know to start one. ;-)

As I was hoping, I don't really have to create the wiki for "Incredible books for High School Students", because Joyce Valenza has already done it! Yeah, Joyce! http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbwiki.com/

I was very impressed by the sample Lit Circles wiki. What an organized assignment. Ditto for the St. Joseph's County pathfinders. I think this is a very good use of wikis. I also checked out some of the teen services MySpace's. They are pretty cool, and attractive, and I like the "Ministry of Magic" or "Draco and the Malfoys" music. But in reviewing the "friends", it seems there are more authors, other libraries' teen services departments, storytellers, etc. than there are teens. Can we really reach teens in this way? I don't think we are cool enough for that.

School staff and district librarians would have many uses for wikis, as many of the examples showed. I recall trying to rewrite a job description that we could all approve last year. Sending the Word document around and trying different colors to emphasize changes didn't get it! This would be so much easier. Also, I would like to see teachers use wikis for the "cooperative note-taking" or a group paper. I think these opportunities would appeal to high school students. Also, I would like to try a book review wiki, although reading about the possibility of having a "catalog wiki" gave me the willies! I'd love to have the reviews available when students or staff searched for a book, but I would need to know that some parts of the catalog entry could be locked!