In relation to the digital textbook idea, I have waited for someone else to suggest this, but no one has. So I'll go out on a limb and put this idea out into the IPM community, perhaps to ridicule, perhaps others have also considered it, but not put it up for comment.
<br><br><br><br>I am seriously considering having my students write their own collaborative textbook online. I am looking at having a class text book (Potts) and then creating a set of blank wiki pages for the class. At this stage, I am undecided as to whether it would be restricted access or open to the public.
<br><br>Their task will be to prepare a summary and answer questions and put their work onto the wiki. Students will share the workload, but it will be their task to read additional material (other books or websites I will source) and add to the notes. Of course, this sounds like a lot of work, bit as "Student A" may have already done most of the summarising, "Students B, C D E ..." just have to add other tidbits or fix errors (the beauty of a wiki). By carefully rotating the tasks amongst the class, each will be given a variety of tasks that must be done carefully as the other class members will hopefully rely on them.
<br><br>I have been playing with a wiki for my Year 12 class in the latter half of this year and found that weaker students had their answers corrected online by better students and all of a sudden, they realised how poor their work standard was and it improved each time it was their turn to add work to the site.
<br><br>I hope to then keep the wiki content for 2008 and beyond (remove the questions each year) and then use this and Potts as a textbook which they can continue to develop.<br><br>I'll be the first to admit their are flaws with this, but I can see lots of benefits too. So do the students who contribute regularly as they are sharing the resource and then doing extra reading/writing.
<br><br>If there is interest from other list members, I would consider opening it up for others to join in.<br><br>I am now looking at establishing a class blog or bloki and finding ways to incorporate these ideas into the curriculum. I saw other members of the list discuss the possibilities of using podcasts and am keen to look at this (I was stoked a few weeks ago when one of my students took his iPod out to retrieve a .txt file of the Information Processing Steps he had entered onto the iPod). has anyone else seen other examples of this use of the iPods?
<br><br>I struggle with numbers like many others and so with the new Study Design, I've decided to use IT in my IT class and make it rich, real and relevant. <br><br>Regards,<br><br>Joseph Papaleo<br>Ivanhoe Grammar School
<br>Mernda Campus, <br>Plenty<br><a href="mailto:joseph.papaleo@igs.vic.edu.au">joseph.papaleo@igs.vic.edu.au</a><br><br><div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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