Wikispaces

The GarageBand project has finally started trucking along and it feels like most of the logistical kinks have been worked out.  Now I am focused on trying to make this experience as valuable as possible.

I have created a wikispaces website for our class to promote the sharing of student work and to offer guided practice in providing polite and constructive criticism to peers.

The website is locked and password protected.  I wish I could share it with my faithful blog readers because I think it is going to be a really excellent tool, but the privacy and security of my students is the top priority.

Yesterday was the wikispaces roll out.  But before introducing my students to the website and its uses I first addressed both internet safety and "netiquette."

I was surprised at how seriously my students took the internet safety discussion.  Only about half of them have internet access at home and therefore have limited exposure to the online world in general and social networking in particular.  We discussed the importance of protecting our identities but the element of the conversation that they took most interest in was the idea that nothing posted on the internet is ever totally deleted.  They were very struck by the idea that a poor choice online could negatively impact high school and college applications or future career opportunities.

The conversation was rich and powerful but unfortunately it prevented us from actually exploring the website!  Most of the students managed to figure out how to log in and navigate to the GarageBand page, but we ran out of time to complete the assignment which was to listen to the song posted on the page and to define, on the discussion forum, why the song qualifies as an ABA song.

Even so, the kids left the class very excited about the website.  I cannot wait to meet with them again next week and start working in the discussion forum.