Over the past three years in the MET program at UBC I have become very comfortable working in wikis. Most courses require group design assignments and wikis tend to be the perfect tool for the task. For those who don’t know what a wiki is. Here is a great video – Wikis in plain English.

Two years ago at a district alternative teacher meeting there was a universal complaint across the group that we didn’t know each other – where each of us worked, what each of us taught, or anything else for that matter.  There was also frustration with lack of resources, outdated resources, and the exorbitant amount of time it was taking to modify and adapt curriculum for each of our alternative school students due to learning designations and gaps in learning. I piped up at that meeting, “What we need is a wiki! An online place to share this information!”  There were a lot of blank stares.

And then the BCTF went into negotiations with the government and strike-action ensued. We didn’t see each other for an entire year. It sucked. Not that we saw each other much before that, but it was starting to get better. What I managed to do in that time was to create a wiki where we could each introduce ourselves, and our schools, AND share resources. (The image on the right is an outline of the pages contained on the wiki).

The problem I was up against was that many of the teachers didn’t use email (I’m not kidding), and had huge apprehensions about using technologies of any kind.  Alternative teachers are a unique breed for many reasons. But more than any other teachers, alternative teachers are accustomed to being invisible, to operating in isolation. It is quite sad, and it seems most have resigned themselves to it. NOT ME!

So this past school year I tried again. And again. And again! Finally, teachers are coming on board and I have agreed to go into each school and provide mini hands-on workshops to get teachers feeling comfortable using the wiki. I am really excited about this piece of my PLN! After having the opportunity to learn and share and collaborate with so many great people through the MET Program at UBC. I am finally going to be able to give back to my community and hopefully help them make connections.

Note: I chose to create the wiki using wikispaces. I did not want the wiki tied to a district website. I did not want it to be filtered or controlled by administration. I wanted it to be teacher-directed.  That was important for ongoing PD. I also wanted teachers who leave the school district to have the opportunity to stay connected toif they wish. And who knows, if this takes off we could network with other teachers across the province and it could become a much bigger collaborative tool than I imagined. That would be awesome!

Below is a screenshot of the site’s home page.  As you can see in the shot above, each school has their own page where they can introduce their school – size, demographics, hours, offerings, etc. There is also room for each staff member to post a photo and a brief blurb about: subjects they teach, what their passions are, and anything else they would like to share.  In addition, as noted to the right, there is a page dedicated to TOC’s – it’s hard to find great TOCs in alt. ed so when you find them, we ask that you share!  There is also a page for each subject area where teachers can share resources – anything from a great math website to a novel study unit. It’s just getting started but the potential is there for greatness!