Wikis

21st century learners don't hand in their work, they publish for an authentic audience!



Wiki's in a 21st Century Learning Environment
Wikis are a collaborative web page that can be edited by several students. They are a great vehicle for incorporating 21st century skills into the classroom. Research has shown that collaboration is a more powerful teaching strategy than competitive or individual learning*, wikis can be used in many ways including for sustained, on task discussions online.

Students collaborating and editing work together may sound a little scary at first, when you think about the security issues and the possibility of students messing with other students' work. However, wikis have a terrific track changes capability and personal responsibility is a 21st century skill. A 21st century learning environment emphasizes online citizenship and etiquette. Developing a rubric or contract with the students for online behavioral expectations on the wiki is a good way of teaching this 21st century skill. Connecting the online expectations to responsible citizen and acceptable behaviors in the physical world is also a good teaching strategy.

Ten Strategies for Re-engaging Students Using a Wiki
Integrating wikis into lessons to improve learning: High-school technology-integration specialist Andrew Marcinek offers suggestions in this blog post for reviving students' interest in learning. Marcinek set up a wiki for his English 101 class and outlined a new set of classroom expectations that included reminding students to have fun with assignments and encouraging them to collaborate, share and not be afraid to make mistakes along the way. Edutopia.org/Andrew Marcinek's blog

Watch these videos:
How to Video: Creating Efficient Wiki Classroom navigation and Page Design
Wiki in The Classroom
Providing Meaningful Student Feedback on a Classroom Wiki
 Blogs V Wikis

Here are some resources:
Wikis in Education Resources
Examples of Educational Wikis
Wiki's in the Music Classroom
Wikis in the Library Media Center
 7 Things You Should Know about Wiki's
 Wikispaces Tutorial
8 Ways to Use Wiki's in School
Example of a Class Wiki Contract
 Wiki Walk Through
Media Center Wiki
Example:Elementary-Pakistan
Article About the Community Culture of a Wiki

Wikis are a great collaborative tool the question is how do you assess collaborative skills. Here is a rubric that might help:
Collaboration Rubric- Middle and High school

Video Tutorials:Creating a Wiki
Creating an Account
 Designing a Class Wiki
Adding a New Page
Editing in Wikispaces
Organizing Pages
Navigating in Wikispaces
Adding a Link
Inserting a File
How to Add an Image
Adding an External Image
How to Add an Image Link
 Adding a UTube Video
Adding a Widget
New Gloster Widget for Your Wiki
 How to Upload Bulk Accounts for Students without Requiring Email Addresses

In my view, wikis are an useful Web 2.0 tool. Also Wikispaces offers the ability to upload names in bulk without an email address, so all your students can have their own password. To do this you must sign up for a free educator plus account.

Wikispaces PD Presenter Toolkit

I use Wikispaces as they provide free accounts to teachers. If you have any issues they have a great support dept which returns emails immediately. I have had some issues using wikis in Internet Explorer and images. You may be safer using Google Chrome or Firefox. You will need to have an up to date version of Flash. There are of course other wiki sites such as PB wikis and Wetpaint.

* Darling, Hammond et. all., 2008.

For more information about this site please contact Julie Elkan: elkanj@holliston.k12.ma.us

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Last Modified: Wednesday, Jul. 13, 2011
 
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