Wiki. For years, my mind has automatically
associated this term with the widely known “free encyclopedia” that anyone can
edit – Wikipedia. I am sure many people
have a similar association…maybe even placing the concept of a wiki into the “believe
at your own risk” category of internet information like I had done.
However
a few years ago while pursuing my Master’s degree, I had my first real experience
with what a wiki is really meant to be. My
educational technology professor had an idea to create a class wiki, with members
of our class creating pages to define all of the educational jargon and
concepts we were having a hard time remembering. We then started editing each other’s pages,
adding pictures and additional information when needed. We started linking pages together when they
referenced each other, and got ideas for new pages that needed to be
added. From this assignment, I was able
to understand the potential of a wiki.
So,
what exactly is a wiki? It is defined as
“a website in which the content can be created and edited by a community of
users” (Courtney, 2007). The community
may be defined, like Wikispaces that UWG uses, or it may be open to the general
population, like Wikipedia. The more
members contributing information, the stronger the wiki becomes, resulting in a
shared space of collective knowledge. With
that being said, using wikis in classrooms and in school library media centers
seem like a natural connection. Wikis
provide a platform for collaboration, communication, and active engagement for
students and teachers – who doesn’t seek out opportunities like that? Wikis can be used to share information about
library and school events, for teachers to share and collaborate on lesson
plans, for students to collaborate on class assignments, for book and author
studies…the possibilities are endless!
An
essential part of establishing a successful wiki should begin with a basic code
of conduct. The Apalachee High School Media
Center wiki has a Wiki Charter that
provides expectations and guidelines for using the wiki. It provides
explanations of how collaboration works and examples of how to stay appropriate. It is also a good idea to have the media
specialist serve as a moderator for a media center wiki. As moderator they could accept and decline
members of the wiki, monitor submissions, and update content. The moderator should
also encourage and promote use of the wiki through library and classroom activities
so that it remains a collaborative tool rather than a passive storage place of
information.
For
ideas on how to incorporate wikis into the classroom, please check out this link. It provides great wiki ideas for various
subjects and age groups!
References
Apalachee
High School Media Center Wiki. (2009). Wiki Charter. Retrieved
February
17, 2013, from http://ahsmedia.barrow.wikispaces.net/
Wiki+Charter
Courtney,
N., ed. (2007). Library 2.0 and beyond:
Innovative technologies and tomorrow’s user. Westport, Connecticut:
Libraries Unlimited.
Prior to starting me Ed.S. at UWG, I had NEVER heard of a Wiki. I was familiar with Wikipedia and Wikki Stix, but that was the extent of my knowledge. I think the collaboration that Wikis offer is very useful. We have posted a lot of out work for MEDT7477 onto the class Wiki, and it is neat to be able to see other people's idea and work so easily through one effective website. I have often thought about incorporating Wikis into my classroom, but these thoughts have yet to come to fruition. I think I am still in the learning process myself and it is hard to think of ways to incorporate wikis into the K-5 setting. I really like that the Apalachee High School Media Center has a Wiki Charter. Even in the K-5 setting, appropriate usage is a concern for me, so I think it Wikis are going to become a frequently used tool, something like a charter would be a necessity. Thanks for sharing the link to effective uses for wikis in the classroom. I will be doing some further investigation of that site to try to gain some ideas.
ReplyDeleteSally your post brought up an aspect of wikis that I would be concerned with if I was media specialist with a wiki: how to moderate the wiki. One important aspect of implementing a wiki in a school environment is promoting appropriate collaboration as well as overall etiquette on the Internet. While starting a wiki and updating it would be one task for media specialists, but the media specialist and teachers would need to educate students on how the wiki works as far as edits and comments they may make. Students also need to have the maturity to work collaboratively in a public writing space like a wiki. Additionally, the level of involvement from the media specialist as a moderator would also determine how the students make use of the wiki. If the media specialist moderates each edit and contribution to the wiki (especially if the wiki if extremely active), I would be concerned with the amount of time the media specialist would have to contribute to the maintenance of the wiki. If the wiki is being used for a club or a specific group of students instead of the entire school or media program, the level of moderation may be different for the media specialist.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, having the guidelines for the wiki and uses displayed for the students is a great idea to promote positive student collaboration, such as the Wiki Charter at Apalachee High School. Also, by letting the students know the wiki will be moderated holds them for accountable for their actions as well.
I had actually worked with wikis for several years prior to starting my program at UWG. We had been experimenting with both Googledocs and wikis with our fifth graders on various projects and learned a lot in the process! It took some serious training of the students for them to get to a point where they could work well with wikis. We had lots of "mistakes" where students "accidentally" deleted the work of others. It took time and patience to get them comfortable with the idea, but it was well worth it in the end. Sally was right on target when she talked about the need for a "Code of Conduct" when working with wikis. Unless you establish guidelines and rules for use, students may tend to test the boundaries and try things they shouldn't. Moderating wikis is an important job for teachers as well, especially with younger students as they need to know you are paying attention to what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated the link Sally gave at the end of her post. I loved looking at the suggestions for using wikis (particularly the "Where's Wanda" wiki - a play on Flat Stanley where pictures of Wanda are posted on the wiki showing her changing locations.) It is always helpful to have this sort of resource, even if you have been using wikis for years!