Goal: To create, use and maintain a wiki for my twenty-four member Pageturners book club to use for sharing their notes/questions on the books we are reading. As our first competition is in December, this fall I will introduce wikis to the club and let them try practice with it over the next few weeks. It will then be ready for the spring list of books when meetings resume in January.  Students have been sketching book notes/questions on paper in folders. Not all students can attend the weekly meetings so I want to give them a place where they can share online.

Tools: PBwiki a safe, online tool that is free to the educational community for the basic plan and password protected. I will set up the wiki(s) then teach students how to edit it  through a demonstration during one of our weekly meetings. We have a Smartboard to use for teaching and students will be able to work on laptop computers to edit.

Steps to accomplish the goal:

• Register at PBwiki
• Create a mainpage club wiki with separate wikis for the different books in the sidebar (Created on 11/27/07: livoniapageturners) --this will allow me to prevent students from editing the mainpage as they will only get the password for the book (linked) wiki

• Introduce wikis to students and teach them how to ethically use/edit one 
  • First introduced to students at club meeting on 11/27/07, brainstormed characters to add to The Absent Author page
• Maintain wiki and assist students

Example:

• Woodward Academy's Hanalee

Challenges:

• teaching a large, enthusiastic group and being able to give individual attention as needed
• possible improper use of wiki by students

• maintenance

Follow-through: 

• practice with this season's books until the competition, then set the wiki up with new books for the spring seaon.
• present at a faculty meeting to share students' work with building faculty and upgrade to a premium wiki