Wikis sound like another great tool for teachers. It can be used as another collaboration tool, information posting site, and other great ideas. Although at first when I started looking at them it seemed to me that they were more like a website to place information about a teacher’s class. When I was looking for some of the examples of the wiki collaboration, I didn’t see many that showed it. If I did find them I had to do a lot of searching by clicking around the home site. Could have been maybe because I am not part of the wiki was why I didn’t see that aspect of it. Took longer than I thought it would to find a wiki showing collaboration. I didn’t see much of the interacting and editing that they talked about in a wiki. . I did have the benefit of seeing a good use for them. The ones that I was able to see got me thinking. The Code Blue wiki was great. I gather that the students had picked the name of their groups and gave a bio about what kind of doctor they would be. Did enjoy the fact they some of them were very young doctors. The Counting Book was another nice one that gave me an idea for posting on certain topics and seeing if students can match pictures to them. Mr. Lindsey’s page was well organized with information but I didn’t see examples of collaboration between students. Wikis can be great but I don’t think it is for everyone.
I don’t foresee the use of a wiki in my class for the moment. If your school doesn’t provide a site I can see the use of a wiki. My school has their own product that allows having a website (SchoolFusion). All the schools and teachers have their own sites. Here we can post our homework, description of what we are discussing in class, links to sites the students can use, files of work done in class, and announcements. The use of all these functions also doesn’t require the students to have email accounts. There are other things such as blogs, wikis, and online quizzes that require the students to have to a log in. This is provided to them at the beginning of the school year. I did try the wiki that is offered with Fusion. It didn’t seem to easy to use. Maybe also because I wasn’t trained and didn’t quite know how to work the wiki that comes with our website properly. The thing I have come to notice and I might be wrong but it seemed that only one person could edit at a time. This would make the task difficult when you want to make it a class assignment. I can see me using it as a page to post extra information and have students using it as a study guide for what they are learning. I would probably just use a wiki as a supplementary tool. I also don’t about using it with teachers. It would be useful with teachers that I don’t work with at my school. I could use it a collaboration tool with them since it is harder to plan to meet them and discuss ideas. At my school we actually do a good job communicating with each other in other ways and feel that it would be just another thing we would have to monitor along with the website we already have.
I found a really good Wiki, that showed collaboration between students. It was, Mrs. Kubler's 4th Grade Reading Group ( http://kublerreading.wikispaces.com/ ). This one really shows the potential of wikis and how important the discussion aspect of it is. On the home page, there are over 200 discussions messages! Check it out, it may help you come up with ideas for your own wiki, if you choose to create one!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your honesty - I worry that we're all progressing through the '22 things' and nodding and smiling and trying to implement every Thing immediately in our classroom. It is important to have a good awareness of what fits YOUR classroom. I have used wikis with my students for about two years now, and you hit on a really important note that is not often noticed. Only one person can edit a page at a given time. I don't know if this is true of all wikis, but it is true of the site I use with my kids. To resolve this issue, I have students working on different pages. An example might help clarify this: for last year's final exam, I divided up the major concepts (one per student). I created a blank page on my wiki for each concept. Then my students in 5th period began building a study guide and practice activities for that concept. When the bell rang, they left, but the building continued - my 6th period students were also assigned the same topics. They would spend the class period adding examples or clarifying the work of the 5th period student. Then the next day, when the 5th period kids returned, they explored the updates and began the negotation process of what should stay or what should go. Real learning was happening with students who weren't even in the same class. It was a great project. I hope this gives you an idea of a way to use this site with your kids! Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteI like your idea about using a wiki to collaborate with teachers that may not be in your school building. It got me thinking about using wikis with the staff at my school, and I think there are some great ways that wikis could be used within the building as well. It would probably take some time getting the teachers comfortable with using wikis. It would have to be really meaningful though, because, like your mentioned, some teachers would feel like it was just another thing to have to do.
ReplyDeleteI haven't officially tried using a wiki in my classroom yet so I hadn't noticed the issue with only one person editing at a time. That does make things a little more difficult, but I think I could manage it within my class with a little thought and effort.
You gave me a good perspective on wikis. It seems like you have really thought about how wikis would realistically be used in the classroom.