3. Wikis ideas for practice

Meg’s EduPedia objectives

To collect and compare ideas for how you could use wikis in your class.
To generate ideas for how you could use wikis in your classroom.
To assess a range of wikis for usefulness, effectiveness, communication style and ease of use.
To select a wiki or wikis to refer to as a model for your own wiki enterprise.

Your EduPedia objectives

What are you hoping to learn from this module? Your objectives can be the same as mine, but is there anything else you are expecting to learn? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Introduction

Teachers use wikis in three main ways: as a professional tool for sharing with other teachers, as a class management and communication system, and as an educational tool. This module describes some of the most common things teachers are doing with wikis, but asks you, too, to come up with some ideas of your own for using wikis in the classroom.

Focus questions: Wikis in practice

Now that you’ve looked at some wikis in the Wikis in education module, start thinking about how teachers have been using wikis in terms of professional communication, class management and education: What sorts of announcements, topics, or information are created and in what context (communication, assessment, class assignments … )? What do you need to know more about? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

What could you wiki?

Here are some ideas for wikis.

Professional wikis: teachers wikiing for teachers. See Wikiversity for an extreme example (it's HUGE!) of teachers creating wikis for others to dip into. Other examples include the South Australian Senior Secondary Information Technology Teachers' wiki, a resource-building wiki, and Second Life in Education, a wiki about how to use virtual worlds in teaching. Other things you could do on your wiki are:

Provide tips for other teachers
Reflect on practice
Share ideas
Post resources
Explore important issues in the profession (Richardson 2006: 40-2).

Possible pages could include

Professional issues
Discoveries
Resource sharing
Pedagogy
Curriculum
Dealing with behavioural problems
Tips and tools
Networking
Educational policy
School issues
Community announcements via the discussion tool

Wikiversity

Class management wikis: teachers wikiing for students (Richardson 2006: 40-4; UHCL n.d.: online). Many teachers use wikis to organise and run their classes. EduPedia is an example of using a wiki as a ‘learning management system’ where you can:

Communicate the latest class info
Post course guides
Provide links
Provide advice on how to complete assignments
Provide assignment info
Communicate with parents
Conduct assignment review
Post prompts for reflection on class topics

Other examples:

SHS Architectural CADD (individual students each have a space on the wiki)

West Fairmont Middle School puts lab sign-ups on their wiki

Welker's Wikinomics

Salute to Seuss

Mr Kimzey does just about everything on his class's wiki!

English News Reporting and Writing

Educational wikis: wikiing by students (Richardson 2006: 40-4; UHCL n.d.: online). There are many things you could ask students to do on their wiki pages:

Group projects
Build resource or research collections
Write pages on news items or current affairs
Discuss the ‘learning journey’ or workshop activities in the discussion forum on the page
Share info, resources, links
Peer review
Group FAQ

Script writing with a wiki

Biology Knowledgy has a great sense of humour!

Kimzey wiki

Math 12v Outcomes Portfolio

Teaching with Technology wiki

Exercise: Brainstorm classroom uses

Brainstorm other uses can you think of for wikis in the classroom. Separate things out according to your wiki purpose: for other teachers, for students, by students. Once you’ve got a topic area, start thinking about the content: what would you include in terms of course content, issues, specifics, links? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Exercise: Wiki types comparison

Find examples of each type of wiki: a teacher-for-teachers wiki, a student/parent communication wiki, a student wiki for a particular class or course. Analyse and then compare them for effectiveness, communication style, usefulness for the intended audience, ease of finding the right info. Select a wiki that you would refer to as a model for your own classroom wiki and explain why you would use it. Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Exercise: Wikiing plan

Begin to formulate your wikiing plan. Will you be wikiing for students, or will you ask students to creat a wiki or wikis themselves? What is the purpose of the wiki? Is it for other teachers? For communication with students or parents? For student learning? Below are some places to start. Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it! You can also use Meg's Wiki Plan (pdf, 296 KB) to help guide you.

For other teachers

What is your focus? What will make people visit your wiki? Theory? Philosophy? Sociology? Student behaviour? Edtech? Policy? Current issues?
How passionate are you about the topic? Can you maintain an interest?
Can you share other resources with teachers? Links? Media?

For class management

What sorts of pages will you create?
Will students or parents be responsible for keeping up-to-date with the latest announcements?
Will you be uploading assignments for students to access at home?
What if a student doesn’t have access at home? Will you expect them to access your wiki at school or via a public library?

For student learning

Subject prompts
Group or individual wikis?
Assessment
Teaching privacy, copyright, security
Will you set up a wiki for each student or group, or will you ask them to do it themselves? Will you allow them to find their own wiki site, provided it meets certain requirements that you set out yourself?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Reflection

Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

What have I learnt?
What is still unclear?
What do I need to follow up on?
Where to from here?
What other stuff I have read or accessed to help me make sense of it all?