What is a wiki? A wiki is a
website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and
otherwise edit and change available content. An awesome video podcast that
perfectly explains what wikis are and how to use them is “Wikis in Plain
English”. It can be found on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY&feature=player_embedded&noredirect=1.
Wikis came about in the 1990’s
when Ward Cunningham coined the term which means “quick” in Hawaiian. Wikis are
a perfect example of O’Reilly’s principle of Web 2.0: “harnessing of a
collective intelligence”. Almost everyone
has heard of the most famous wiki: Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an online
encyclopedia in wiki format that can edited by any user. Although some people
question the reliability of Wikipedia, a study in Nature magazine suggested
that Wikipedia actually had only a few more errors than the print version of
Encylopedia Britanica. Since most students today are “digital natives” why not
allow them to utilize their technology skills in the classroom and media
center?
My experience with wikis is
limited to my graduate classes at UWG. The first time I heard the word wiki was
probably in the summer of 2011 during my selections class. We had to use a wiki
to develop a school wide plan for a media center. I found the wiki fairly easy
to use. Some of the projects I have used a wiki for include developing a school
wide plan, two year plan, and pathfinders. Overall, I feel that I have a good
understanding of what a wiki is and how to use it.
Where do you begin? Find a site
for your wiki. There are many on the web and most are free. Examples include www.wikispaces.com, http://pbworks.com/, or http://www.tiddlywiki.com/. Once
you get your wiki set up, remember to make changes you must select EDIT. To
save those changes, you must select SAVE. Be careful not to delete anyone else’s
work although I believe that you could restore it if that did happen. Another
thing to think about is what you want your student’s roles in the wiki to be.
Who will do what? There needs to be some plan to this or it could become
chaotic. Check out this handout by Bill
Ferriter for suggestions on how to determine student roles in a wiki. He offers
practical roles for students such as a spelling cop and link layer. You will
probably want to take a visit to a wiki farm. These are a host of wikis run
from a single website. Just like different kinds of animals live on a farm,
different kinds of wikis live on a wiki farm. One of the most popular is wikia.
On wikia you can visit wikis about anything and everything. Topics are divided
mainly into three broad categories of entertainment, gaming, and lifestyle. A
few cool ones I found were:
As with most technology, there
are advantages and disadvantages to using a wiki. An advantage of wikis are
that they allow a group of people to collaborate and share thoughts as they
work together toward a common goal. Another advantage is that anyone with a
computer and internet access can use a wiki anywhere at any time. Wikis are not
without disadvantages though. The simplistic format of wikis allow even
elementary students to participate in group projects using them. Also, teachers
are able to view the revision history in order to determine who has contributed
making it easier to assess group assignments. Since users are solely in charge
of wiki content there is a risk of someone posting information that is
incorrect or offensive. Even though creators can monitor and delete comment it
could get overwhelming to constantly do this. Another drawback of wikis are
that they may make it difficult to determine individual opinions and thoughts
since wikis are really built to represent a group’s voice. However, the two
disadvantages mentioned are minor and I feel that the advantages far outweigh
them.
Apalachee High School Media Center's Wiki was my favorite of the school media
center wikis that I explored. I could tell that a lot of time had gone into
adding all the information on it. One thing I noticed was that they had a wiki
charter that explained that the wiki was monitored and that postings might be
edited. Also, it went over acceptable guidelines for postings. The research
page for this wiki listed multiple topics that students might need more
information about including citation, copyright, and creating multi-media
presentations. Amy Bowllan’s article, A Wiki Gives
a Worthy Book New Life, showed me an interesting way that a
wiki could be used in a classroom or media center. She created a wiki for
herself and others to create and share resources on an awesome book.
There are so many ways that
students can use wikis in the classroom and media center. A great thing about
them is that they can be used by students at a variety of levels, elementary,
middle, and high. Imagine a whole new way for students to work on group
projects. Instead of emailing, texting, and face to face work sessions students
could work together from anywhere at any time. Wiki book clubs are a neat idea
I came across. Students could have discussions of the books as they read it.
Another site I visited suggested that students could use a wiki to create and
go on a virtual field trip to anywhere in the world. Wikis are definitely
changing the way students and teachers can collaborate!
Molly,
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I just can’t get used to Wikis. I think my main reason is because they are aesthetically confusing and the same is true of the school you link in your post. When I clicked on the link and entered the page, the links on the right and the embedded pages were too busy and borderline sloppy to me. The links on the left, however, were easy to navigate and made sense in terms of use.
The link to the Wiki in “A Wiki Gives a Worthy Boy New Life” article was simply put together, but I looked through more on Wet Paint, and they seemed to be more detailed and easy to navigate. I think in order to have a success Wiki and for people to have an invested interest in one you create, you have to spend a consider amount of time and energy into trying different techniques and putting everything together, such appears to be the case with the one you linked for The Hunger Games trilogy.
Molly,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mini Wiki lesson. I, too, am new to Wikis. This is my first class where I am using a Wiki, but I have to admit – I love it. At first it was a little hard to get use to – and at time I still forget that we have a Wiki site and a separate site to submit our work. However, I have already started using Dropbox in my classroom with my students and recently set up a Dropbox account with my team at school. For my students who have internet access at home, Dropbox has been working at well for them.
I also love that you included the Wiki from The Hunger Games. I loved the series and cannot wait for the movie to come out! I think I spent more time navigating around that site then I should I have – LOL.
I really like how teachers can view the revision history so it is easier to keep up with how posts and when he/she posts.
I also visited Apalachee High School’s Wiki. It was very cool! It amazes me how great a media center’s website can be with a little time and effort.
Molly,
ReplyDeleteI really learned a lot from reading your post. Yes, Wikis are new and I will admit that they take some getting used to. I tend to agree with Marian. The setup of a Wiki is strange looking for me and therefore is taking getting used to.
I do like the advantages that Wikis give over other forms of communication. Email boxes can become inundated with mail that it is very hard to decipher it all. I like how the content can also be updated by a community of users.
I wonder how long the Wiki will live? It seems to depend upon if people are willing to invest time into keeping it current and up to date. If not the information will become stale and outdated. It seems when this happens it is the begginning of the end and the death of that particular Wiki has come.
We will see what the future of the Wiki will be until the next BIG thing!