Ideas for Wikis
Last week I delved into the world of wikis, including their application in the classroom. I even touched on the correlation with high-stakes testing. My classmates and Joe all brought up valid points. We can’t overlook the valuable assets that technology integration grants to our students just for a few points on a standardized test.
This week I wanted to look at actually implementing a wiki in my room. My search led me to the following site: http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/, “A Wiki Walk-Through”. I really liked this site because it seemed a lot like the interactive ppts we just did. I was able to click through to find the parts that I was interested in, although I did end up looking at all of it.
For anyone new to wikis the first section would be beneficial as it describes wikis and their uses. There is also a “wiki vs. blog” section to compare and contrast the two technologies. It discusses the obvious. A blog is one person’s opinion, etc., and others can comment on it, where a wiki allows others to edit your work. Although blogs and wikis can both be cooperative efforts, I feel that a wiki allows for more collaboration. Before a wiki is begun—however—I feel the teacher must explore and teach the concept of collaboration and teamwork. Later, the article does address “editing vs. vandalism”. “Students will be students, and at least one is bound to "vandalize" another student's work on your class wiki”, or so they state.
The site also addresses other valid issues such as security, parental involvement, and wonderful ways to implement the wiki. This section really attracted me. I found several ideas I would like to try with my fifth graders. One did involve that “high-stakes” testing we’ve all been discussing. In this idea students created a wiki to write “What I think will be on the test”. This allows students to share ALL their knowledge. To narrow it down for specific subjects, I also liked the idea of having students write a “Science textbook” as they progressed through their Science units. An example of a Math wiki involved students creating a “Procedures wiki” to explain step-by-step how to complete mathematical operations.
I have a lot of ideas to look into. Now, I am ready to look at an actual wiki implemented in a fifth grade class.
posted by Crystal Crozier @ 9:41 AM
3 Comments:
Great site, Crystal! I really liked how navigation-friendly everything was and how it was simplified for newbies like me. I was amazed by the number of suggested uses for a wiki. I had only considered a handful. I particularly enjoyed the link to the continuing tennis story. That seems like something a fourth grade class could create. The idea of a non-field trip was innovative and gives kids an opportunity to see explore locations they may never have the chance to visit in real-life.
This site would actually prove useful for students to introduce them to the wiki, although I'm sure you already considered that.
The vandalism aspect is scary, but likely unavoidable. Have you come across any helpful suggestions to avoid this? Can nothing be done besides giving consequences for such behavior?
I agree with Laine. Great site! The only bad part of being exposed to all this great information is that I get all fired up and want to start working on a million different "integrations" of my own...and then my time runs out...and by the time I get back to it, I sometimes forget why I was so fired up to begin with.
To me this is the fatal flaw (wait, ONE of the fatal flaws) associated with professional development. Just like students- we want teachers to be "passionate" about what they're creating for classroom use. Too often, however, this "passion" is getting stifled by the daily overload of paperwork, administrative details and hoop jumping. If you have an inservice on "wikis" in the morning, then instead of overkill all afternoon let them take off on their own endeavor. Have 'TRUE' experts on hand to answer questions. Let them collaborate by content area or across content areas if the prefer. Oh, and get them the technology necessary to pull it all off!
Ok, off my soapbox. This also makes me want to go around my school with a video camera and do those q&a's that you see on tv asking people about history, or current events, and basically demonstrating how clueless many people are. Don't you think kids (although they probably are more familiar with them than adults) would come up with some hilarious answers for "What is a wiki?" Then you could publish it as a podcast! Maybe you could incorporate this a "pre" wiki building activity :)!
Thanks for pointing out the site Crystal!
Ann
Wikis are wikid cool. I wrote about the potential for wiki use in a paper for another class. One of the things I mentioned as a possible activity was allowing younger students (4th graders, perhaps) create the wiki, and then asking older students (5th graders, perhaps) edit it. Since, presumably, the 5th graders would have a better understanding of language, they would be able to "correct" any mistakes made by the younger students. Though I am a decent teacher of writing skills, I have found that students learn best from each other.
The one thing I think would make such a possible activity better would be if there were some way that a bubble (or something) would pop up over areas of the wiki that had been changed. In this way, the younger students could see the edits made by the older students. Maybe the older students could even make comments to explain why they made certain edits. If Im not making sense, let me know. I am horrifically sick right now and probably sound as if I am incoherently rambling.
Vandalism is going to happen; it's a shame but it's true. A social studies teacher at my school had his students create bulletin boards around the building detailing a different African country. Within a day many of the boards had had something ripped off. Some kids, like some adults, have no respect for things; however, we can't shelter our students from all of the harsh realities of the world. The land of wiki is no different.
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