Wiki Reflection

http://jeffersenglishwiki.wikispaces.com/

I would like to incorporate this wiki into my future classroom. I would modify the wiki to the grade level and exact subject I will be teaching. For example, if I am teaching a seventh grade language arts class, the wiki would include links to support the stories and novels that we are reading as well as scaffolds for homework, projects and classwork. If I am teaching a twelfth grade AP Contemporary Lit class, the scaffolds would be more like a syllabus and links to outside research materials. I would like to spend more time working on the layout and look of the wiki as well, to make it as appealing and simple as possible.
With students creating a wiki, this would need to be a long-term project. It would be an excellent and authentic learning experience, but because of the time involved, it would need to spread out over time, with benchmarks to ensure that students are making appropriate practice. This would be a good activity to assess for mastery over a quarter or half-year.
My view of instructional technology has completely changed over the semester. Prior to this class, I had used PowerPoint a few times for presentations, but had never used a wiki or a blog, and had not attempted to create a wiki, website, movie and podcast. Now I feel comfortable taking that knowledge into the classroom and working on some of these projects with my students. Instructional technology can be scaffolded to support learner differences, it can be used collaboratively, for research, for assessments, for projects and for presentations. The possibilities are many and the benefits for the classroom are obvious to me. I will be incorporating everything that I have learned into my future classroom.
I have created a website, a wiki, a screencast, an internet workshop, a movie and a podcast. All of the projects were appropriate for the assignments. I wish, in some cases, that I had more time to polish my projects. The benefit of the technology is that one can return time and again to tweak the projects. In the case of the wiki and the website, these projects are now tools for the classroom that I will keep with me and share with my students. To that end, the creations go on and the quality will be checked and improved upon going forward. I am confident that as my abilities increase even more with the use and implementation of these tools that the quality will be even better.
Surprisingly, my comfort level with technology is much higher than it was when I began this course. I cannot believe that things that I had created in the short time. It makes me confident that I can handle and employ new technologies that will benefit my students and enhance my instruction.