Wikispaces+Professional+Development

I planned and prepared for presenting a technology related in-service program that was given to all secretaries that work for the district. This was my first assignment as an intern. On July 14th, the 19 secretaries from all schools in the district had a technology development day and I worked with the director and another intern to help the secretaries set up their own Mac server Wikispaces. I, along with the director and the other intern assisted and presented procedures for creating, managing and collaborative features of the Wikispace. Aspects of the wiki that we presented to the staff were inserting an image or file, creating an external and wiki link, embedding widgets, etc. Each participant was able to create their own Wikispace on the server and share it with their colleagues.

I have presented many times at different conferences across the state and locally to groups of teachers, administrators, professional staff, etc. on multiple educational technology resources. On August 3rd, I co-presented with two of my CFF teachers I work with on different projects we accomplished throughout the year using Google Docs and Wikispaces. On August 3rd, I co-presented 4, one hour sessions and on August 4th, I presented by myself 2 one hours sessions on Google Docs in literacy. The presentation audience consisted of professional staff from all of northwestern Pennsylvania. The audience ranged from teachers and support staff to administrators and directors of instructional technology. In addition to all of the presentations, each day was opened with a keynote speaker and concluded with another speaker and open discussion on the day's sessions. All of the time during the session I helped others create and access their Google and Wikispaces accounts as well as discussed how the resources could be used in an educational setting.

The August 3rd presentation consisted of my working with 2 of my most veteran 21st century style teachers. I presented 2 one hour sessions with a math teacher showcasing and presenting how he has turned all of his classes digital using Wikispaces and Google Docs. We covered the basics on creating a Wikispace, how to edit, how to embed widgets, how to upload files and pictures, etc. as well as the benefits of Google Docs in the classroom. The main focus was implementing the web 2.0 tools into lessons as student projects and teacher created resources. A very beneficial resource that I created was the packet on everything that a Wikispace can do. Each person in attendance had the option of either taking a hard copy of the packet or to leave their email address and I emailed it to them as a PDF file. In addition to the packet, I used the software Camtasia to record both audio and my screen starting from creating a Wikispace to the most advanced features. The recording is housed on the website screencast.com and I also emailed each person the link to that recording. The creation of this media, both physical and audio/visual was a big hit. Each participant walked away with a brief showcase of what the tools can do as well as resources to utilize or pass onto others.

The second presentation was with a veteran English teacher. We presented 2 one hour sessions on how to capitalize on the web 2.0 tools that are out there to make graduation projects an ease. I work cooperatively with her each year to have each student create their proposal for their graduation project in Google Docs. The presentation hit on the great features that Google Docs and Wikispaces bring to a project of such magnitude. The presentation focused on the ins and outs of Google Docs. I created the same resource for Google Docs as I did for Wikispaces and all participants walked away with an understanding of Google Docs and how to utilize this tool for graduation projects. We also briefly showcased our school's graduation project Wikispace and how this can be a priceless resource for students tackling this task. Throughout the afternoon hours of August 4th, I worked with a small team of teachers who were aiming to make their graduation projects include as many digital components as possible. We created their school a Wikispace, uploaded files and images, embedded multiple widgets, etc. We also discussed the possibility of each student doing all of their word processing in Google Docs and embedding those documents into a digital portfolio created as a graduation project. This time was more of a team training and not on a larger scale. I helped this school and their team create a resource and outline a strategy to implement digital portfolios into their graduation projects.

[|SHS Graduation Project Wikispace]

The professional training provided resources for each attendee in digital and physical format. This is the resource packet that I created and distributed to people. It was sent via email as well as provided as a hard copy for attendees.



media type="custom" key="7759377"

These are the screencasts that I created on how to create and use a Wikispace. media type="custom" key="7229523"

media type="custom" key="7229501"

media type="custom" key="7229517"