Why Wikis?
Based on my research, there seem to be endless ways to use wikis in the classroom, and the fact that they seem to be at their best when used collaboratively shows me that this is exactly what I need to implement next in my classroom. I love that students can share their learning via wikis by doing projects, papers, etc. The hesitation that I have is the fact that anyone who has the right to the wiki can edit anything in the wiki at any time. Most of my students would not abuse this, but I am hesitant nonetheless. Richardson (2010) made me feel better when he discussed in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms that each user (student) should have an individual account. That way, the student is logged in as he or she makes any edits or changes to the wiki, which would allow me to keep up with who does what.
I was even more inspired to start using wikis when I read Vicki Davis' blog explaining how she began using wikis with her high school students. I did not expect to read about how excited her students were to collaborate together like this, but it proves the point that students are totally capable of learning from one another, and it is something they enjoy. As a general rule, kids are social, and I hear lots of kids talk about how much they love lunch and recess. Why? Because that's when they get to interact with others. What if we brought that concept into the classroom setting? When my students work collaboratively on projects, the level of engagement drastically increases.
Examples of Successful Wikis
Go West is a wikispace designed for third graders to share their knowledge about the Oregon Trail and westward expansion. It's organized in such a way that on the left side, there is a "table of contents" that shows the topics covered in this wiki. Then, from what I can tell, students were assigned at least one topic to research and write about in the wiki. It appears as if students could use pictures as well as words. I really liked the Timeline section that the students created What a visual way to understand westward expansion. I also like the fact that the students actually created the timeline as opposed to just finding one already made online somewhere. That definitely helps the information stick. This wiki would also be a great thing to tell parents about - lots of parents want study guides and so on for tests, but this teacher could just tell her parents to access the wiki and help their children study from that. Reading the Teacher Reflections part of this wiki was very helpful because it gave me an idea of how this project was run. According to the teachers, some websites were pre-selected for the students to use, but then they were also allowed to do further research for some of the topics. This seemed like a great way to teach students internet safety as well as the importance of evaluating websites. I wish the teachers had explained further how they divided the project up among the students. I also wonder if students had some type of rubric or check sheet to follow as they worked. After perusing this wiki, I am inspired to include wikis as part of my social studies instruction next year when I start teaching social studies again.
Thousands Project created by Mr. Monsoon's class is a wiki designed to collaborate with other students throughout the world. Every month, a question is posted for anyone in the world to answer. The goal is to reach 1000 answers each month from people around the world. The wiki is organized by month. Along the left, the "table of contents" goes from September to May/Summer. When I clicked on September, it shows the September question and the responses received. I was amazed to see the amount of responses there were. The content of this wiki was very interesting to read since it came from people everywhere. This wiki did not utilize any specific tools because it was designed for others to respond to. After perusing through this wiki, I wish I knew how the students in Mr. Monsoon's class were involved with this. It seems like a really neat idea to create something for anyone to respond to, but from what I saw, all it was was other people answering the question that was asked. I did not see any type of interaction among those commenting. Something that could be fun to add to this would be to require the class to respond to these posts.
Mr. Lindsay's Wiki is a wiki for a fourth grade class, and to me it looks like a class webpage. It's organized into several different categories: "Classroom Window", "Curriculum"' and "Other Stuff." It appears to be a very helpful website for both students and their parents. In the "Classroom Window" section there was a category for Student Blogs. This particular section seemed really neat, but I found it confusing once I actually clicked on it. I think if I had a wiki like this, I would organize the blogs into categories based on assignment or subject so that they would relate together. I did like all the resources the teacher posted. He had links to all kinds of websites that students can refer to. For example, he linked to Spelling City, which is a great resource to practice spelling.
Wikis in my Classroom
I would also like to use wikis in social studies. This would be a great place for students to review all the material they learn in each unit while collaborating with one another in the process. I truly believe that wikis have the potential to transform education because of the collaboration that goes on within them.