Monday, February 20, 2012

To Wiki...or to not Wiki...that is the question...

Wikis, you've heard of them, are online environments where information can be quickly added and updated by a community of users.   Wikipedia being the most popular wiki...is the perfect example of one. This particular wiki has a team of editors who are on the ball 24/7 correcting errors and validating information.  (So, it can be used as a source when researching....but that's a different soap box.)

But what about wikis in the classroom?  Is there value in it?  How about introducing students to the concepts of open-source software, community collaboration, respect for other people's ideas, intellectual property, and public domain?  These are skills now needed for the 21st century.  Web 2.0 is here to stay and increasingly our students are becoming web 2.0 users, whether we are ready or not.  

Wikis are also a great way to create a system for collaboration on any number of different projects.    Teachers have control.   It's equitable for all students because it's accessible from anywhere there's internet.  Wikis have the potential to be global...set it up for global collaboration and really tap into the power of wikis. Students are the authors and editors of their own projects; they take ownership and therefore the learning is much more powerful. 


Often times it's hard to tell who did what work in collaborative projects, but there is a record of who posted and what they posted in wikis which makes it easier for teachers to see who is putting forth the effort. 


So what are some ways wikis can be used in classrooms?
  • Literature wiki
  • text books
  • SOL reviews
  • Assessment tool
  • year round portfolio
  • Collaborative final project
  • Easy tool for ESOL students to use to put pictures together with text
Give wikis a try in your classroom and see how powerful they can be.

1 comment:

  1. Using Wikis for collaborative projects as a way to track individual student contributions seems like a perfect solution for group projects when some students do all the work and other students just sit back. This is definitely a tool to consider using for group assignments/projects, especially with students who are hesitant to work with others in fear of carrying the work load and others receiving credit on their behalf.

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