Good Ideas For The Classroom

There seems to be more buzz about wiki usage in educational settings than other arenas, but I guess that is natural given the age group. This article from the Philadelphia Enquirer poses some really straightforward ideas for using wikis in some practical learning situations.

Dang - when I click on the link from my search results, I get the article; when I click on it in this post I go to a registration page (It's Free! woo-hoo). Anyway, here are a few excerpts from the article:

Wikis are often used as tools for collaborative writing. Their major advantage over the old-fashioned notebook is that they prepare students to write collaboratively in a networked environment. Because they are Web-based, no single student hogs the project disk. Everyone can easily contribute and edit. Teachers can pop in to comment or monitor progress and see the variety and level of student contributions.

Wikis can be used to draft collaborative documents - classroom policies, simulated peace treaties, poetry anthologies, recipe collections, or proposed simulated legislation. Wikis are good vehicles for classes doing peer-reviewed projects, and they function as archived portfolios for classes serious about the writing process. They can be used as focal points for class discussion.

David Warlick, educational technology consultant, author, and director of the Landmark Project, said: "Wikis are just breaking out as vehicles for student projects."

Warlick suggests that elementary teachers ask their classes to create wiki-dictionaries. When students learn words, they add the words in alphabetical order to the class wiki. Throughout the school year, the students build a truly relevant classroom resource.

Warlick suggested an idea that came up at one of his recent workshops: "If I were teaching high school, I would collaboratively produce a study guide for each unit in my class. I'd have students load their own notes and useful external content onto the wiki and ask them to continue to build and refine it as a real study tool. What you would have in the end is a personal wiki textbook. Students would leave the class with a digital library of what they have learned."

There are downsides to wiki use. They are a bit chaotic and vulnerable to hacking, and they can inspire editing quarrels as groups negotiate content. But wiki users note that the group itself tends to keep the content stable.

Wikis can be collaboratively built by classes across the country or the world. Or they can involve cross-age collaborations across a school district.

Beyond student projects, in school, wikis can support meeting or in-service planning, with individuals contributing agenda items and linked resources before an event, as note-taking devices during the meeting, and as planning tools after a meeting.

Bernie Dodge, best-known as the father of the WebQuest, considers this "the most exciting time in my career. We have the tools to make a profound difference in teaching and learning, and we're only at the beginning of that process."