Thursday, July 10, 2008

Wikis

A wiki is a communal, subject-specific Web site where users are free to add and/or edit content. When it comes to Internet-based collaboration, there’s nothing easier to use, according to Richardson. In schools, wikis enable groups of students, teachers, or both to gather content and share written work. Some classes create their own textbooks and resource sites. Take a look at Wikis and plan how you can use them for learning and teaching, for projects, professional development, or library resources.
Source: http://judyoconnell.wordpress.com/
So a wiki (quick in Hawaiian) is a site that can be modified by a group of people collaborating on a specific project.


Wiki video from CommonCraft: They explain technology in "plain English"!



You probably know wikis through wikipedia and the controversy around the use of this resource in schools. There are many providers of wikis but I especially like Wikispaces and they are offering 100,000 free wikis to educators. So register for a wikispace as there are only about 20, 000 left for the taking. Now that you have it what can you do with it? I am really excited about the possibilities of using wikis in our school. I created my first wikispaces this summer for collaborating my group for the course LLED 477 at UBC. The wiki explores privacy issues for students online and for revamping a unit I designed about Illegal Teenage Migrants. If I can do it so can you!

Online Wiki Resources:

Teachers First Wiki Walkthrough
Educational Wikis
from Wikispaces
Kevin Amboe's Sample Educational Wiki Sites

To wiki or not to wiki: ideas for using wikis at Clayton Heights
  • Write a short story/novel collaboratively in an English class. Each student writes a chapter and then they edit together. Students can create alternative chapters, point of view, and endings.
  • Use it as a communication or planning tool for committee work or department work in the school. Participants can focus on the task and edit work in their pyjamas from home or more sensibly from their desk in their class not in their pyjamas.
  • Collaborate on designing unit with students: teacher provides the theme and students give ideas or feedback on the proposed learning. The teacher works as a facilitator of learning instead of sage. Students own the learning instead of having a project imposed upon them.
  • Cut down on whining for group projects "I had to work, We couldn't get together". Students do group projects on a wiki = no paper, teacher can assess on who really contributes and how. Teacher can assess progress week by week focusing on a different area e.g. critical thinking.
  • Tutorials for exam preparation.
  • Frame a class event: info to view before a field trip, peer editing of students' work.
Source: some my own and others from conversation in LLED 477 class July 2008 UBC

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