Long Time Posting

It has been a while since I have posted. It is school holidays here in NZ and I have been spending a great deal of time reading about all the wonderful things other people have been doing!
I have come across some excellent sites -- thanks mostly to Kevin Jarrett (be sure to check out his blog as it is jam-packed with excellent resources). A favourite today is www.dipity.com where you can create timelines. I see this being used extensively in reading as well as topic studies.
Mostly this week I have been joining online communities (or reacquainting myself) such as twitter, diigo, Classroom 2.0 and joining up with ad4dcss!
A lot of the conversations and discussions I have come across are very much ICT oriented which is great but I would really love to find a community that is all about teaching and learning. A community that can help with planning and ideas. Like-minded people who can assist in the creation worthwhile learning activities -- whether web2.0 is included or not? Is there anything out there?
For me, web2.0 and ICT are merely tools (albeit excellent ones) in learning. Let's not lose sight of that.

I have also had to change my template as the one I have been using has gone a wee bit funny!

Wiki

My class has been using a wiki regularly since the beginning of the year. They are now (mostly) competent at linking to pages, adding content and editing pages.

We run into the occasional problem such as someone accidentally linking to an already existing page and proceeding to delete all content!! But in general I am incredibly impressed with the skills they have gained in such a short time.

I am now seeing these skills transferred. One of the students in my class has now gone on to create her own wikipedia page. Remember these kids are 9 and 10 years old!

The most positive outcome of using a wiki is the fact that all of the learning that occurs is authentic. It serves a purpose. There is always an audience -- a huge audience!!

Please check it out at http://pohutukawa.wikispaces.com