» And the winners are… The Edublog Awards (click HERE if you’re in China)

Congratulations to the 140+ Shanghai American School AP Economics students from 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 who have contributed to our wiki over at http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com, (click here if you’re in China). Just last night the winners of the EduBlog Awards were announced, and our wiki came in first place in the category “Best Educational Wiki”.

Welker’s Wikinomics started out as an experiment in collaborative learning less than one year ago. Thanks to my bright and enthusiastic students, it took off and quickly grew into a huge online resource for economics students and teachers, covering nearly every topic of the macro and microeconomics AP syllabus. As the months passed, more new features were dreamed up and added to the wiki, such as the “Student Thought Forum”, the “AP Econ in the News” pages, the “Test Review Center” (where we host live chats the nights before tests), and many other interactive and engaging features aimed at enhancing and extending the learning that goes on in the economics classroom at Shanghai American School.

In addition to my students, who of course deserve the greatest congratulations, I would also like to thank the folks at Wetpaint, most notably Michael Bolognino, for working with me and other educators to help develop Wetpaint into an unparalleled free (and ad-free) online resource for educators. My direct communication with Wetpaint’s programmers has helped develop this product into one of the best wiki options available for educators. Thanks to their commitment to education, Wetpaint has begun offering their product ad-free to teachers, which along with the customizability and user-friendly interface has made Wetpaint a powerful, unmatched tool for teachers who want to extend student learning beyond the realms of textbooks and into the world of Web 2.0.

I also owe a big thanks to Shanghai American School’s tech guru, Jeff Utecht, whose visionary understanding of technology in education inspired me to explore wikis and blogs in the first place. Again, congratulations and thanks to everyone who pitched in to help make Welker’s Wikinomics the best educational wiki in the world!

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About the author: Jason Welker is a teacher at Zurich International School in Switzerland, where he teaches Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Economics. Jason was an international school student in Malaysia before studying economics at Seattle University then earning his Masters in Education. He calls Seattle and Northern Idaho home. In addition to maintaining an economics wiki and this blog for economics student and educators, Jason also gives presentations on using Web 2.0 tools in education at workshops and conferences around the world. His economics wiki won the 2007 "Best Educational Wiki" award from the "EduBlog Awards".

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