May 02 2008
Wiki Deleted
6th graders -
I decided to write this in a blog post and have you respond here rather than having an open class discussion right away. After our discussion yesterday about appropriate wiki material and proper citing of photos, several students decided to add somewhat questionable material to the wiki during school yesterday, including photos without citations. This was something that I was going to address again during class today. However, last night, 1 or more students abused their wiki privileges to such a degree that I was forced to delete the entire wiki. Why? Well, because I was trusting and set it up with openly-known (to your and Mr. M’s class) passwords, I can’t 100% prove who the offender was. I also can’t prove that the offender was in this class, and don’t want to falsely accuse anyone. I have a fairly good idea of who the student is, but this truly is a class issue. I’m very concerned because in the last group there was never even a single misuse of the wiki or privileges.
The student(s) last night took advantage of the openness of the wiki and a) sabotaged other pages, which is completely disrespectful and against all proper-use guidelines, and b) wrote inappropriate material on the other pages, including material that would be considered bullying by any standards.
I would like you to comment here with your reaction to this incident and let me know why any 6th graders, ANYWHERE, should be allowed to work on a wiki. Do you think 6th graders are mature enough to handle a project like this? What do you think I, as the teacher, could have done differently?
Due to the seriousness of this incident, this is a graded assignment that will be reported back to Mr. V for the gradebook.
