Thing 32--Take Three: Wikis

After creating the English Department wiki, I presented it to the department today. I was actually surprised about how warmly it was received. One never knows how technology in general will be received--if it will be interpreted as more work or not. I am optimistic that it will be used. A few teachers seemed to have the same vision for its potential as I had when creating it. Using technology is great, but being able to share the excitement is so much more powerful.

On a side note, the other wiki I created is being temperamental. I created an avatar for each of my coworkers that co-coordinate the ninth grade committee with me. That was great fun! I called another teacher that is one of the co-coordinators and we had such a great laugh at the first four that I had created--one of them being her. She really liked them and so I thought that it would be fun to have her help create the last avatar with me. This way, I had to walk her through the necessary steps in using the wiki and also how to create an avatar. The likelihood of her using the two wikis I created is much higher now (she is also an English teacher). If everyone had the opportunity to have a one-on-one mentor to coach them through the process, one would never get frustrated with using new technology. (Of course, it is time consuming and an unrealistic idea, but a gal can dream!) Now, when I log into the wiki, one of the avatars have dropped off the page and when I try to reload it by entering the edit page, it gives me the whole page in html. I don't know what to do!