Student+Collaboration

__Feb. 18, 2011__ - Well, I would love to say that I have successfully used Wallwisher with my class, but the site is having technical difficulties. When I searched "problems with Wallwisher" I found that several people had the same problem. Wallwisher is such a great idea, it's a shame they can't resolve their issues.

I can recommend Diigo for older students. This is a site that allows students to share ideas and website links with one another. They log in (accounts you set up through the educator console), create their avatar (take their picture with the computer camera and upload from desktop), and they are ready to go. It is safe and secure. The kids loved using it. Most of our students do not have Internet access out of school, so they only used it during library/technology.

Here's a screenshot of a fifth grade class here at CES:

The other nice thing about Diigo, is that you can use the site for storing your bookmarked links. You can then share with others and organize links you use for certain lesson plans. Here is my link: http://www.diigo.com/user/bcknoll Feel free to copy and use anything you see that you like.

__Early February__ - I will be using Wallwisher this week with my fourth graders. Wallwisher is a site that can be used as early as first grade. I just post a prompt and students double click on my page to respond. It can be used as an formative assessment by asking curriculum driven questions. What I like the most is that students don't have to have an email account to use this site. I just have to put the link on our website.

Below is one that I created for my fifth graders. I couldn't use it because the computers in the computer lab needed to be updated. Lesson learned: try something new out on the student computers before your class comes to the library!