About

This "Read The Rosies" Wiki was developed as a project for a library science course taken from [|IUPUI-SLIS]. The developer is taking a class via the Internet called [|High Tech Learning]. The developer's instructor is [|Annette Lamb]. If you would like to learn more about this class, please visit Dr. Lamb's website at [|eduScapes.com].

This project was developed to provide a high tech learning experience for the fictional 9-12 grade students at Harrison High School. A portion of the project was also adapted to fit the needs of a ninth grade English teacher's curriculum for the semester. The intent of the wiki project was to provide the students with the opportunity to participate in the Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award Program as sponsored by the [|Association for Indiana Media Educators] and the [|Indiana Library Federation].
 * Audience**:

The project was designed to meet the diverse needs of all of the students that attend Harrison High School. There are multiple layers to the program that any student can participate in depending on their interest. Students can simply read a Rosie nominated book (or have it read to them) and fill out a ballot to vote for their favorite. They can also go one step further by adding content about the book(s) they read on the Harrison "ReadTheRosies" wikispace. For those students with visual preferences and/or artistic tendencies, a book cover can be designed for an extra entry for the monthly drawing. By participating in different levels of the project, students can earn multiple entries into the monthly library drawings held by the media specialist, Mrs. Houser. By reading more than 5 of the nominated books and completing the steps indicated on the wiki, the students can also earn a special invitation to a library luncheon hosted by Mrs. Houser.
 * Need**:

The project was designed so as to not require face-to-face interaction. Many students enjoying expressing their opinions; however, not all like to do this in person or in groups, as in a book club. The project was also designed to help students gain more experience with using technology. The assignment for the ninth grade English class was developed to help the students produce a collaborative project that required independent thinking and learning while learning the value of a collaborative goal. Through the project, each English student would be able to contribute to the content of a wikispace dedicated to the book that he/she read. Each student would be required to design and produce an alternative cover for the book that he/she read based on their own interpretation of the content of the book. Through their daily journal entries and through the content of their wikipage contributions, each student will strengthen their writing skills as well as improve their reading skills. Many reading, writing, and technology standards could be met as well. The library media specialist could also meet many of the collaborative learning goals he/she might set by working with various classes on the wiki project.

Through the project, the library media specialist hopes to instill a love of life-long learning and a passion for reading. It is also the hope that students will become more comfortable in the library media center and will find it as a place for open communication and a culture of sharing good literature and good fun.

This project used the following technologies: wiki, Photo-Story with audio sound recording, and digital photography. I believe that the wiki was an excellent tool to be used as a collaborative project for the entire school. According to "Make Way For Wikis" by Eric Oatman, wikis are great way for students "to sharpen their writing skills." (School Library Journal, Nov2005, p. 52-54) Wikis provide the opportunity for students to work independently but collaboratively at the same time. According to a teacher in the same article, students are forced to do some of the best writing because they "had an authentic audience. They knew others were looking." (p. 52) Wikis provide students with the opportunity to expand their knowledge in a collaborative environment while empowering them to share that knowledge with others worldwide. Wikis are easy to set up and are easy to navigate and edit. Students with different learning abilities can work at their own speed and can contribute easily. Wikis are great for student group projects because students can edit each others content in a more non-confrontational way. According to Laurel Clyde in the April 2005 issue of Teacher Librarian, the result of a collaborative wiki is "a seamless document that incorporates ideas from a number of people without identifying the individual contributions." (Wikis, pgs. 54-56)
 * Technology Effectiveness**:

I also used digital photography and Photo Story to add depth and personality to the project. Both technologies are extremely easy to use. I was able to take a digital photograph of an actual bulletin board that I created at my real high school job for the Rosie's. It was much more impressive than if I had tried to describe the bulletin board in words. The addition of Photo Story was also quite easy. I think this would be an excellent tool for students when creating original stories of their own. They could create their own illustrations or they could take pictures and set them up in Photo Story for a class presentation or for their own enjoyment. Narration could also be added to the Photo Story as I have done in the project. Thusly, by adding narration (audio), the Photo Story could be enjoyed by those students with visual disabilities also.

At the same time, technology can have issues. The use of wikis in education has been widely discussed. Because of the collaborative nature of the wiki, anyone can edit and/or change content. Cathy Davidson talks about the "credibility of the information found on online knowledge collaborative sources, like Wikipedia, in her article "We Can't Ignore the Influence of Digital Technologies". (Chronicle of Higher Education, 3/23/2007) In a perfect world, all content added to wikis would be researched and unbiased. However, this is not true even in print. The use of wikis has raised challenge after challenge about authority and accurancy. Many say that wikis have no place in education where students should be instructed to use authoritive and documented sources. Using a wiki should provide teachers and librarians with the opportunity to "talk to students about reliability and to teach them about being critical of sources and where information comes from." (Make Way for Wikis, p. 55) Contributing to and/or using a wiki is providing another opportunity for students to "participate in a community of lifelong learners". (We Can't Ignore..., p. B20) Isn't this what we librarians are all about?
 * Technology Issues**: