Thing 10 -Wikis
Purpose: To learn about wikis and discover the innovative ways they are being used in education.
A wiki is an online collaborative and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools.
Some of the benefits that make the use of wikis so attractive are:
- Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit, or delete content.
- Collaborating for projects when people are in different locations
- Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
- Earlier versions of a page can be rolled back and viewed when needed.
- Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.
Several wiki websites that are free to use are (in case you want to make one of your own):
Wikis can be used for reading discussion groups, school newspapers, for group studying, for ongoing homework assignments, conference sessions and a multitude of other uses. Let’s take a look at some examples:
Use these resources to learn more about wikis:
· Wiki, wiki, wiki - from the Core Competency blog of the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County.
· Wikis: A Beginner’s Look – an excellent short slide presentation that offers a short introduction and examples.
· What is a Wiki? – Library Success wiki presentation.
· Using Wikis to Create Online Communities – a good overview of what a wiki is and how it can be used in libraries.
Discovery Exercise
For this discovery exercise, you should have already viewed many of the wiki examples above.
Post something on the Curriculum Connections Wiki (this will show you how a wiki works). http://calcurriculum.pbwiki.com/.
Blog Post: Thing 10 – wikis Create a blog post about your findings. Explain what you posted on the Curriculum Connection wiki. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within schools might work well with a wiki? If you were going to create your own wiki, what subject and content would you include?
Curriculum Connections:
Wikis can be made for any classroom!
- Idea #1: Collaborative note-taking. Everyone pitches in and adds a fact or two about a topic. Teachers can encourage students to include opinions, challenges, and appropriate criticism. Students would then write essays using only these notes. Make sure that each addition includes a citation to website, book, or database, including page numbers so that it can be checked.
- Idea #2: History. Students can compile a wiki of famous artists, architects, writers, and other key historical figures from a city, state, or country.
- Idea #3: Create a "top 10" lists and supporting material. This could include scientists and their discoveries, top writers and their books, ... you get the idea.
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