I am pleased with the results of using wikis in my classroom this past semester for the students’ electronic portfolios. For this next semester I will use wikis for the electronic portfolios and also as a collaborative tool for the students. I have included in this blog entry some wiki resources that I am using and that I think you may find helpful. The first resource is a list of sites that help me learn more about Wikispaces; the second, ideas for classroom uses of wikis; and the third, examples of some excellent classroom wikis.
Learning More About Wikispaces
If you’re planning to try Wikispaces… or if you’re currently using it and want to know more about what it can do… check out this list of resources.
TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through (what wikis are, how and why to use them, uses Wikispaces as the example)
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
Wikispaces video tutorials (quick way to get started)
http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour#introduction
Wikispaces tutorial (instructions for getting started with Wikispaces, click on Help after logging in)
http://www.wikispaces.com/space/gettingstarted/on
Wikispaces main help page (easy-to-understand)
http://www.wikispaces.com/help
Wikispaces help sub-categories (easy-to-understand)
http://www.wikispaces.com/help+index
Wikispaces blog (news about wikispaces with how-to’s)
http://blog.wikispaces.com/
How to Use Wikispaces PowerPoint presentation / audio podcast (good instructions for beginning to use Wikispaces)
http://bleiva2003.motime.com/
Keep track of maintenance happenings and service problems (current status, to check or to report)
http://status.wikispaces.com/
Ideas for Classroom Uses of Wikis
Are you looking for ideas of how to use wikis in your classroom? Check out the suggestions in these lists.
http://allthewikis.com/wiki-faqs/best-wiki-classroom-education/
http://beyond-school.org/2007/01/01/more-on-wikis-in-education/
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis
http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Main_Page
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://www.scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/wikiedu/
Here’s some of the suggested uses I found at these sites.
from TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through…
book reviews
collaborative project with other students… another district, state, country
course hub
debate
explanations of challenging procedures
field site observations
field trip summary
glossary
lab reports
problems the class is working to solve
research projects (instead of a PowerPoint)
student project products
student-created FAQs
study guides created by student groups
vocabulary lists
local history
from WikEd Wiki in a K-12 classroom…
collaborative textbooksliterature circles
organization tool
science fair project preparations
student portfolios
teacher collaboration
from The Science of Spectroscopy…
data collection
group authoring
peer review of projects
presentations (rather than PowerPoint)
tracking group projects
web sites
Examples of Excellent Classroom Wikis
Would you like to see some outstanding educational wikis? Be sure to visit the best educational wiki 2007 finalists for the 2007 Edublog Awards.
GoAPES wiki for Advanced Placement Environmental Science teachers
Horizon Project 2007 a “collaborative global project between classrooms in diverse geographical locations”
Mr. Lee’s Math 12 Advanced Class an “outcomes portfolio”
Salute to Seuss student pages about Dr. Seuss’s books
Welker’s Wikinomics a “collaborative tool for understanding concepts in Advanced Placement Economics”
Showing posts with label Wiki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wiki. Show all posts
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Using Wikispaces and PBwiki
Last week I shared an article which is a good introduction to using wikis in the classroom. I also provided a link to an interview with teacher Victoria Davis who uses wikis with her students and Adam Frey of Wikispaces. This week I’ll share some of my experiences using wikis in the classroom.
Two wiki providers that provide free wikis for K12 educators are PBwiki and Wikispaces. I used Wikispaces with my classes this past semester and I plan to use PBwiki next semester. Then I will compare the two to determine which best serves the needs of my students and myself.
I’ve played with wikis myself; but, I had not previously integrated them as a required component for my students. This past semester I used Wikispaces with my Instructional Technology classes. The students are required to create electronic portfolios which showcase their skills and strategies for integrating technology into the teaching and learning processes. A wiki seemed like a good medium to use because it’s easy for the students to read and write to it and it’s structured for organizing by content rather than chronology.
My students did not have previous experience using wikis, so I led them through the process of registering for their own spaces and through several procedures which they would need to know to create their pages and content. A couple weeks later we added more skills to their repertoire. Next semester—Spring 2008—I’ll guide them through all the necessary procedures in one class. This Fall I created a sample electronic portfolio for my students to view for ideas. I’ve already modified it for next semester.
Using a wiki for an electronic portfolio does not take advantage of a wiki’s collaborative benefits. Next semester, we shall use wikis for both purposes. We’ll start with a wiki—probably in the first class—and an assignment which requires collaboration. Having a combination of traditional and non-traditional students in classes makes collaboration sometimes quite challenging. The wikis should help! Later in the semester we will start using the wikis to build our electronic portfolios.
The students easily learned how to use the wikis… and they enjoyed working with them. The only challenge was that when they first created a new page, they didn’t see it anywhere! So early lessons next semester will have to include creating new pages from within the navigation area as well as managing their spaces so they can see the pages they’ve created.
In Wikispaces, only the Basic plan is free for university students. Consequently, our wikis have ads on them. In K12 schools, however, the Basic Plus plan is free. Thus, K12 students and teachers can have ad-free wikis.
Wikispaces provides three options for space visibility. Spaces can be public, meaning that everyone can view and edit your pages. Or they can be protected, meaning that everyone can view them, but only space members can edit them. Both of these options are free… with ads, of course. The third option (Plus) is that the spaces can be private, meaning that only space members can view and edit them. This option has the advantage of being ad-free, but it costs $5 per month… unless you’re a K12 user. In that case, it’s free. Wikispaces’ goal is to give away 100,000 free K12 Plus wikis. So far, they’ve given more than 50,000 free Plus wikis to K12 teachers. Both Basic and Plus plans have 2 gb of storage.
Wikispaces provides a variety of tutorials and instructions for using their wikis. They have their own tours in addition to linking to others such as the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through. Just follow the links as you explore the Wikispaces site. You’ll find many ideas for using wikis in education, including advice for introducing them to your students (and their parents) as well as reasons to use wikis in your classes.
PBwiki provides instructions, videos, and white papers for learning about wikis, for using them, and for creating them. A wiki workshop which teaches how to use PBwiki is available at Atomic Learning (subscription required except for the first video). PBwiki has both public and private wikis. There are no advertisements… period. The free version has 10 mb of storage. I’ve made a PBwiki version of my sample electronic portfolio. I like the fact that I can use colored text; however, the layout does not seem as clean as I would like it to be.
At this point, I’m more comfortable using Wikispaces than I am using PBwiki. However, that may be because I’ve used Wikispaces for a longer period of time. I will use PBwiki for my class this next semester… and then evaluate which wiki provider is more useful for my students.
Two wiki providers that provide free wikis for K12 educators are PBwiki and Wikispaces. I used Wikispaces with my classes this past semester and I plan to use PBwiki next semester. Then I will compare the two to determine which best serves the needs of my students and myself.
I’ve played with wikis myself; but, I had not previously integrated them as a required component for my students. This past semester I used Wikispaces with my Instructional Technology classes. The students are required to create electronic portfolios which showcase their skills and strategies for integrating technology into the teaching and learning processes. A wiki seemed like a good medium to use because it’s easy for the students to read and write to it and it’s structured for organizing by content rather than chronology.
My students did not have previous experience using wikis, so I led them through the process of registering for their own spaces and through several procedures which they would need to know to create their pages and content. A couple weeks later we added more skills to their repertoire. Next semester—Spring 2008—I’ll guide them through all the necessary procedures in one class. This Fall I created a sample electronic portfolio for my students to view for ideas. I’ve already modified it for next semester.
Using a wiki for an electronic portfolio does not take advantage of a wiki’s collaborative benefits. Next semester, we shall use wikis for both purposes. We’ll start with a wiki—probably in the first class—and an assignment which requires collaboration. Having a combination of traditional and non-traditional students in classes makes collaboration sometimes quite challenging. The wikis should help! Later in the semester we will start using the wikis to build our electronic portfolios.
The students easily learned how to use the wikis… and they enjoyed working with them. The only challenge was that when they first created a new page, they didn’t see it anywhere! So early lessons next semester will have to include creating new pages from within the navigation area as well as managing their spaces so they can see the pages they’ve created.
In Wikispaces, only the Basic plan is free for university students. Consequently, our wikis have ads on them. In K12 schools, however, the Basic Plus plan is free. Thus, K12 students and teachers can have ad-free wikis.
Wikispaces provides three options for space visibility. Spaces can be public, meaning that everyone can view and edit your pages. Or they can be protected, meaning that everyone can view them, but only space members can edit them. Both of these options are free… with ads, of course. The third option (Plus) is that the spaces can be private, meaning that only space members can view and edit them. This option has the advantage of being ad-free, but it costs $5 per month… unless you’re a K12 user. In that case, it’s free. Wikispaces’ goal is to give away 100,000 free K12 Plus wikis. So far, they’ve given more than 50,000 free Plus wikis to K12 teachers. Both Basic and Plus plans have 2 gb of storage.
Wikispaces provides a variety of tutorials and instructions for using their wikis. They have their own tours in addition to linking to others such as the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through. Just follow the links as you explore the Wikispaces site. You’ll find many ideas for using wikis in education, including advice for introducing them to your students (and their parents) as well as reasons to use wikis in your classes.
PBwiki provides instructions, videos, and white papers for learning about wikis, for using them, and for creating them. A wiki workshop which teaches how to use PBwiki is available at Atomic Learning (subscription required except for the first video). PBwiki has both public and private wikis. There are no advertisements… period. The free version has 10 mb of storage. I’ve made a PBwiki version of my sample electronic portfolio. I like the fact that I can use colored text; however, the layout does not seem as clean as I would like it to be.
At this point, I’m more comfortable using Wikispaces than I am using PBwiki. However, that may be because I’ve used Wikispaces for a longer period of time. I will use PBwiki for my class this next semester… and then evaluate which wiki provider is more useful for my students.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Using Wikis in the Classroom
Have you started using wikis yet? For yourself? For your students? This week’s Tech Tip is an introduction to the use of wikis in the classroom. Next week we will go into more detail.For Teachers New to Wikis
This article--by Joe Moxley, MC Morgan, Matt Barton, and Donna Hanak--is a good introduction to using wikis in the classroom. It begins with a description of what a wiki is and of some of its characteristics. Suggestions for using wikis with students are shared. The article concludes with a discussion of some obstacles that may show up.
Users may read and also write on web pages called wikis. You do not need to know HTML or use other software to create web pages when you have access to a wiki. You can determine which individuals have the rights to read a wiki and who has the rights to write to a wiki. They provide opportunities for collaborative work, with each new edit replacing the old, but with a history of edits automatically maintained. Having the chance to view previous edits is useful whether you are a single individual working with a wiki or if you and a group are working together on a project.
Students can use wikis to write, to debate, to share resources, to maintain a journal, to collaborate, to support projects. Some classroom procedures you may want to implement are having students sign the pages they write or edit, assigning roles such as one student having the responsibility to watch over the wiki pages so there are no bad edits.
Students may be hesitant about writing in public. And it may take a while for them to become accustomed to editing, both their editing others’ work and others’ editing their work. Because wikis are designed for writing, some other features may not be as flexible as users might like.
Wikis in Education: An Interview with Victoria Davis and Adam Frey
Steve Hargadon of EdTechLive.com hosts this very interesting interview (August 24, 2006) with teacher Victoria Davis and Adam Frey of Wikispaces in which they talk about using wikis in the classroom. Davis shares how she and her students use wikis and the feedback she receives from her students. Both interviewees discuss the role of wikis now and in the future. The interview concludes with questions from the audience and answers from Davis and Frey.
Two wiki providers that provide free wikis for K12 educators are PBwiki and Wikispaces. I used Wikispaces with my class this semester and I plan to use PBwiki next semester. Then I will compare the two to determine which best serves the needs of my students and myself. Next week I will share about Wikispaces and my class’ experience with it this semester.
Wiki Poster by Alan Levine at http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/163592467/
CC license at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Attribution: Some rights reserved.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Class Projects, Teacher Videos, and 21st-Century Skills
I’ve read some interesting blogs and viewed some thoughtful videos this week. I think you’ll find taking the time to look at them worthwhile.
CLASS PROJECTS...
When I read David Warlick’s blog (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/index.php), I was excited to see some very interesting examples of student and teacher use of digital skills (e.g., distance learning, video, spreadsheets) and Web 2.0 applications (e.g., wikis, social networking, blogs) in the same lessons. Check David’s blog entries from March 23 and March 24, 2007 to read about several teachers and their students who are teaching and learning using today’s tools.
A brief sampling of what I found…
TEACHER VIDEOS...
While I was at David Warlick’s blog, I discovered TeacherTube (http://www.teachertube.com/index.php)… YouTube for teachers!
Teachers, administrators, students, parents, anyone can watch videos on TeacherTube. You can join video groups to network with others who have similar interests. You can save favorite videos or create playlists. You can integrate TeacherTube videos on web sites. When you upload your own videos, you can choose to make them public or private. TeacherTube is a free service.
Some of the videos you might want to check out are…
Survivor: The Middle School Classroom (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4bf8ce0ff2ec19b37151&page=3&viewtype=&category=mr),
Technology Fear Factor in Education (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=d9fe611d5a8e90fefdc9&page=2&viewtype=&category=mr),
Learning in Hand: Administration (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=75530d9583c34fd356ef&page=4&viewtype=&category=mr),
Inspiration Software with Math Instruction (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c49e5a833517c45d3107&page=2&viewtype=&category=mr),
Make Classroom Posters with Microsoft Excel (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=a121ce581499d7b70166&page=1&viewtype=&category=mr),
… and the list goes on.
21st-CENTURY SKILLS
At Will Richardson’s blog (http://weblogg-ed.com/), I learned about the Did You Know video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI) created by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. Watch the video… and then ask yourself… and your colleagues… what it tells us about using and preparing our students to use 21st-century skills. There’s not one “correct” answer to that question. This is a topic we all need to discuss.
CLASS PROJECTS...
When I read David Warlick’s blog (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/index.php), I was excited to see some very interesting examples of student and teacher use of digital skills (e.g., distance learning, video, spreadsheets) and Web 2.0 applications (e.g., wikis, social networking, blogs) in the same lessons. Check David’s blog entries from March 23 and March 24, 2007 to read about several teachers and their students who are teaching and learning using today’s tools.
A brief sampling of what I found…
… a grade eight class was delivering reports to a class in a rural part of the province… used Wikispaces for the presentation and the multimedia, including links to video and spread sheet files.
… Chad… posted the information on the class wiki, pointed his students to it and then assigned them to work in teams and invent their own political party. They were required to have a platform, to write speeches, have a mascot and logo, and to present their party to the class, and to utilize all of the vocabulary words and political concepts in the process.
… several of the students created a party web site, using Piczo, which is a social networking site that seems to be favored by youngsters in Canada…
TEACHER VIDEOS...
While I was at David Warlick’s blog, I discovered TeacherTube (http://www.teachertube.com/index.php)… YouTube for teachers!
Teachers, administrators, students, parents, anyone can watch videos on TeacherTube. You can join video groups to network with others who have similar interests. You can save favorite videos or create playlists. You can integrate TeacherTube videos on web sites. When you upload your own videos, you can choose to make them public or private. TeacherTube is a free service.
Some of the videos you might want to check out are…
Survivor: The Middle School Classroom (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4bf8ce0ff2ec19b37151&page=3&viewtype=&category=mr),
Technology Fear Factor in Education (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=d9fe611d5a8e90fefdc9&page=2&viewtype=&category=mr),
Learning in Hand: Administration (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=75530d9583c34fd356ef&page=4&viewtype=&category=mr),
Inspiration Software with Math Instruction (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c49e5a833517c45d3107&page=2&viewtype=&category=mr),
Make Classroom Posters with Microsoft Excel (http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=a121ce581499d7b70166&page=1&viewtype=&category=mr),
… and the list goes on.
21st-CENTURY SKILLS
At Will Richardson’s blog (http://weblogg-ed.com/), I learned about the Did You Know video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI) created by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. Watch the video… and then ask yourself… and your colleagues… what it tells us about using and preparing our students to use 21st-century skills. There’s not one “correct” answer to that question. This is a topic we all need to discuss.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
More About Wikis
In an earlier entry, I wrote about wikis. David Jakes adds more interesting information about them in an article he wrote for techLEARNING. He covers how wikis work, their educational benefits... and the potential concerns, their maintenance, available wiki tools, wikis to watch, and how you can learn more about them. This article is definitely worth reading.
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=191801354
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=191801354
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Why Use Wikis?
I’ve heard about the Wikipedia. Sometimes students even use it for a reference. But, what’s a wiki? Are wikis used for anything else? And why do they have such an unusual name? I decided to do some research to learn more about wikis.
What is a wiki web site?
A wiki (http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki) is software which we can use to easily create web pages, add content, and maintain these pages using a web browser. Working on a wiki page feels like working with a word processor.
A unique feature of wiki pages is that you may choose—if you wish—to allow others in addition to yourself to edit them. You may create a list of persons each of whom has permission to edit… or you may allow everyone to edit… or you may allow no one other than you to edit, if you wish.
BTW, the word “wiki” comes from a Hawaiian word for “fast” or “quick.” So, a wiki is a web site—designed for a special purpose—which can be created and maintained very quickly.
Which wiki sites are interesting or useful or…?
A variety of collaborative writing projects exists that takes advantage of the ease of using wiki software.
The Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org) is the best known of the wiki projects. This encyclopedia has versions in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages. The English Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) contains more than 1,400,000 articles covering the areas of the arts, biography, geography, history, mathematics, science, society, and technology. It even has a reference desk where volunteers serve as virtual librarians.
Those involved in writing wikiHow: The How-To Manual That Anyone Can Write or Edit (http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page) want it to be the largest how-to manual in the world. It is a free resource for solutions to problems we encounter in everyday life. wikiHow’s more than 13,000 articles are written mostly by volunteers.
The EmacsWiki (http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki) deals with eMacs, of course. The contents include learning about, downloading, installing, and customizing eMacs. Also included are programming eMacs, bugs, and wish lists.
Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page) is a free travel guide. Persons throughout the world have written more than 11,000 articles for it. Areas covered include Africa, Asia, Australasia and Oceania, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, Central America and Caribbean, and others.
WikiNews (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page) is a free news source written by volunteers.
Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page) is a dictionary in English. It contains synonyms, antonyms, and more. Over 297,000 entries are currently available.
Wikibooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page) consists of free textbooks that can be edited. Currently there are more than 1,000 books.
Wikiversity (http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page) is a site to create and use free learning materials and activities.
Wikispecies (http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) is a free directory of species including Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Bacteria, Archaea, Protista, and others.
Media files can be stored in the Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page). Topics currently included are nature, images, society, sound, science, and video.
Why might educators be interested in using wikis?
Wikis are 21st-century tools which are
• easy to access
• easy to edit
• accessible to groups
• engaging and motivating and
• appealing to multiple learning styles.
Wikis have an authentic purpose and an authentic audience.
They allow students to connect with peers and experts.
Wikis maintain a history of a document’s revisions and include the ability for the editor to revert to a prior version.
Both students and teachers can use wikis for group work and they can be used to communicate to others.
Are there any possible problems using wikis in education?
Mark Warner (in the conference presentation mentioned later in this article) lists information literacy concerns, inappropriate content due to multiple editors, intellectual property issues, fraud and identity theft, and stalkers and predators. These concerns should sound familiar. They are, for the most part, typical of concerns for any type of web publishing. As with any web publishing which involves students, appropriate measures should be taken including education about protecting personal information and using permission slips.
What are some ways to use wikis in education?
Some teachers have their students develop class projects on a wiki. Collaborative editing and peer review are easy for the students. The teachers can view successive drafts of the projects and comment throughout the process.
Group authoring works well with wikis. There is no lag time from one author’s comments and revisions to those of another author. All the authors have equal access to current versions of the document.
A wiki is a convenient spot for members of a group to keep track of their activities and resources as they work on a common project.
These and other ideas for using wikis in education are discussed at http://www.scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education
If you go to http://k12online.wm.edu/WikiWhileYouWork.mov, you can view a presentation from a k12onlineconference held in October 2006. The speaker, Mark Warner, shares three wikis that are being used by educators—two to help elementary teachers plan classroom activities and one that a secondary language arts teacher uses with his students—and then Warner explains how to use WikiSpaces, a site which hosts wikis. The movie is a full conference presentation, so it’s long… but, it’s very good.
What do I do next if I’m interested in trying a wiki project?
I’ll share some specific ideas for getting started with wikis in a subsequent article.
What is a wiki web site?
A wiki (http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki) is software which we can use to easily create web pages, add content, and maintain these pages using a web browser. Working on a wiki page feels like working with a word processor.
A unique feature of wiki pages is that you may choose—if you wish—to allow others in addition to yourself to edit them. You may create a list of persons each of whom has permission to edit… or you may allow everyone to edit… or you may allow no one other than you to edit, if you wish.
BTW, the word “wiki” comes from a Hawaiian word for “fast” or “quick.” So, a wiki is a web site—designed for a special purpose—which can be created and maintained very quickly.
Which wiki sites are interesting or useful or…?
A variety of collaborative writing projects exists that takes advantage of the ease of using wiki software.
The Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org) is the best known of the wiki projects. This encyclopedia has versions in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages. The English Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) contains more than 1,400,000 articles covering the areas of the arts, biography, geography, history, mathematics, science, society, and technology. It even has a reference desk where volunteers serve as virtual librarians.
Those involved in writing wikiHow: The How-To Manual That Anyone Can Write or Edit (http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page) want it to be the largest how-to manual in the world. It is a free resource for solutions to problems we encounter in everyday life. wikiHow’s more than 13,000 articles are written mostly by volunteers.
The EmacsWiki (http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki) deals with eMacs, of course. The contents include learning about, downloading, installing, and customizing eMacs. Also included are programming eMacs, bugs, and wish lists.
Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page) is a free travel guide. Persons throughout the world have written more than 11,000 articles for it. Areas covered include Africa, Asia, Australasia and Oceania, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, Central America and Caribbean, and others.
WikiNews (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page) is a free news source written by volunteers.
Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page) is a dictionary in English. It contains synonyms, antonyms, and more. Over 297,000 entries are currently available.
Wikibooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page) consists of free textbooks that can be edited. Currently there are more than 1,000 books.
Wikiversity (http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page) is a site to create and use free learning materials and activities.
Wikispecies (http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) is a free directory of species including Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Bacteria, Archaea, Protista, and others.
Media files can be stored in the Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page). Topics currently included are nature, images, society, sound, science, and video.
Why might educators be interested in using wikis?
Wikis are 21st-century tools which are
• easy to access
• easy to edit
• accessible to groups
• engaging and motivating and
• appealing to multiple learning styles.
Wikis have an authentic purpose and an authentic audience.
They allow students to connect with peers and experts.
Wikis maintain a history of a document’s revisions and include the ability for the editor to revert to a prior version.
Both students and teachers can use wikis for group work and they can be used to communicate to others.
Are there any possible problems using wikis in education?
Mark Warner (in the conference presentation mentioned later in this article) lists information literacy concerns, inappropriate content due to multiple editors, intellectual property issues, fraud and identity theft, and stalkers and predators. These concerns should sound familiar. They are, for the most part, typical of concerns for any type of web publishing. As with any web publishing which involves students, appropriate measures should be taken including education about protecting personal information and using permission slips.
What are some ways to use wikis in education?
Some teachers have their students develop class projects on a wiki. Collaborative editing and peer review are easy for the students. The teachers can view successive drafts of the projects and comment throughout the process.
Group authoring works well with wikis. There is no lag time from one author’s comments and revisions to those of another author. All the authors have equal access to current versions of the document.
A wiki is a convenient spot for members of a group to keep track of their activities and resources as they work on a common project.
These and other ideas for using wikis in education are discussed at http://www.scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education
If you go to http://k12online.wm.edu/WikiWhileYouWork.mov, you can view a presentation from a k12onlineconference held in October 2006. The speaker, Mark Warner, shares three wikis that are being used by educators—two to help elementary teachers plan classroom activities and one that a secondary language arts teacher uses with his students—and then Warner explains how to use WikiSpaces, a site which hosts wikis. The movie is a full conference presentation, so it’s long… but, it’s very good.
What do I do next if I’m interested in trying a wiki project?
I’ll share some specific ideas for getting started with wikis in a subsequent article.
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