From 'Whatever' to 'Wow Miss!'

Some while ago, my students and I had a discussion about public versus private wikis.  A few of them still felt the need for the security of a closed space but most of them were fine with the idea of 'going public'.  Actually, the response I had was more like, 'Yea, whatever Miss.  No one is actually going to be looking at our work.'  I told them about David Truss and his science class wiki but they remained skeptical.

Then I pulled a fast one on them.  I embedded a cluster map onto the side bar of our Anthropology wiki and today, showed them that people from all over the world have visited!  Their faces said it all; buggy-eyed, mouths agape and then, 'Wow Miss that's actually cool!'  In a flash, the work they do and post on the wiki, has leaped into warp drive (Star Trek fan here - can you tell?) and through the worm hole of banal to brilliant.  They are accustomed to have friends from class see their work and leave comments but to have somebody from New Zealand, or Denmark looking at the wiki is mind-blowing.

Now how cool would it be if someone (other than teacher or classmate) read one of their blogs and left a comment!  The links to their blogs are on the side bar of the class wiki in case you are curious.  One can only hope...