Week 7, #16, #16A, and #17

I looked at a sample school wiki, a Grade 10 English class wiki, and the Book Lovers wiki from the Princeton Public Library. The most useful for my purposes was the last. This summer my school district is offering training in BlackBoard, so I am planning to use it for a Book Review club in the fall. I thought that the comment on the page that the library "upgraded the catalog to include reviews" instead of initiating another wiki for the next summer was telling as well: sometimes a one-stop experience for a patron is best. I'll look at incorporating student reviews, book trailers, etc. into the school library catalog when it goes online. The Top Ten lists are also a potentially good idea for middle school students.

I was really impressed with what's available on the wikis. I particularly liked the webquest for school library websites that Joyce Valenza has on her wiki. I think that the template is right on target, and there are lots of good sample sites to explore. It is so important to establish a good presence for your students through your website and to promote your library in that way, and I have been looking for good models. Lots and lots to think about--too much for just one week!
And the ideas for curriculum connections using wikis have lots of potential, too.

I had already edited the sandbox on the CA wiki site when I tried to register at the PA wiki and failed. Maybe it was a bad night for that page, so I'll try again later.

I was able to add to the PA wiki a few days later, so I posted on the page about wikis.