Saturday

Tool 6: Wikis

You have used a wiki if you have ever been to Wikipedia, the best know wiki on the web!
It is a webpage with special formatting that allows you to collaborate with others while sharing and storing information. You may have already used the SBISD 21st Century Learner Wiki on some of the other assignments and not realized you were in a wiki! Maybe you have had occasion to use the SBISD Curriculum Wiki for other technology learning adventures?

Here is a CommonCraft video that explains what a wiki is.


Oftentimes, you will encounter wikis on the web that look very informal, seem outdated and are abandoned. That it because they were originally meant to be temporary working spaces.

But as with many things on the web, wikis have become more "permanent!" In education, they are very useful for groups of teachers sharing and storing information and great places for students to work together, whether they are across the classroom, the district, the country or the world! Take a look here for classroom ideas for wikis.

Look on the side bar of this blog to see a list of wikis that will show you how wikis can be used. You will notice that there are several wiki sources available for you to use. PBWorks (formerly known as PBWiki) and Wikispaces. They both have free wikis for k-12 audiences and each has it own stong points. Check them out!

Goggle also has a wiki piece called Google Sites.
See if there would be any advantages to using this resource over the other free wiki sources mentioned above.

Here are several tutorials from Atomic Learning that will help you with ideas for a wiki and how to set one up.

For your Tool #6 Assignment:

IN YOUR BLOG post, discuss how students might use wikis to aid in their learning. Did any of the sample wikis you viewed give you any particular ideas for using a wiki in your classroom for students. How about for and your team or department?

Congratulations! You are more than half-way to filling up your toolbox!

6 comments:

  1. I like the wiki. Students will have fun with this one!
    They will get to post their favorite list of books, and stories to discuss with others, and create their own stories based on what they read, share ideas, and their reflections. They will have the opportunity to create their own ideas, and post them on their wikis.

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  2. Very interesting. Will have to get creative for this one.

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  3. I like the fact that Wiki can be used for different subjects. Students can collaborate when reading stories, create projects, and share their ideas. Also teachers can spread the word by tagging.

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  4. I like this very much! It will save us time and confusion. We can post our newsletters on our wiki and have the whole team collaborate on it intead of only one person taking care of it.

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  5. What a great idea to use a Wiki! Newsletter aricles are never due at a convenient time, and this would make the process so much easier and equitable.

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