Wikis That Work

Practical and Pedagogical Applications of Wikis in the Classroom

    Wiki nuts and bolts

Some common questions and issues

• Wikipedia: reliability and authenticity of information questioned, however it can be a great resource for students to research and an authentic project that students can contribute to
  • Wikipedia School and Universities projects
  • The 'fake professor' controversy
  • Students assessed with wikipedia
  • Andy Carvin's Learning.now: When is an expert not an expert?
• Essential features of a wiki: web pages, discussion tabs, history trail, management and control
  • Different management levels to suit user needs
  • Potentially, anyone can contribute, edit and delete
  • List and pront pages
  • Explore the history of each page and 'revert' back to a previous version
  • Use of discussion/comments tabs
  • Embed multimedia: audio, video, images, RSS

     

    Wiki as a disruptive technology in education

(a definition of disruptive technologies: innovations that drastically change the course by which users connect, engage, and relate with the world and transform society)

• Disruptive Technology in the Classroom

• WikiHow: The 'How to' manual that anyone can write and edit

• Amopedia: A community for sharing information about the products you like most

   Pedagogical uses of wikis in the classroom

Essential features of a Wiki-centric classroom

• Collaborative: shared experiences
• Engaging and supports social learning
• Opportunities for publication: teacher and student
• Opportunities for interaction
• Ability to use Web 2.0 tools
• Online learning, 24/7
• Fosters development of information literacy skills

Best practice use of wikis to support curriculum objectives

• ITGS wiki
  • Course content development and syllabus outlines and timetable
  • Online assignments and projects
  • Provides for student-student and student-teacher interaction
  • Assessment, presentation

• North Shore Reflections (Vinnie Vrotny)
• Westwood Schools wiki (Vicki Davis)

Some other uses for wikis

•  Teacher professional collaboration wiki

  • E-Learning wiki

  • ISTE: SIGHC Wiki

  • Support Blogging

  • Mont'Kiara International School Technology Integration curriculum planning wiki

  • K12 Online Conference (October/November 2006)

• Professional Learning Environment / Digital Portfolio 

  • julielindsay.wikispaces.com

• Other presentation wikis:

  A selection of best-practice use

  • Warlick's CoLearners Wiki (David Warlick)
  • Improving instruction through the use of weblogs (Anne Davis)
  • Podcasting and All That Jazz
  • Cyberbullying
  • Remixing obstacles into opportunities

     

  Other best examples
  • Music course site on a wiki
  • One Laptop per Child wiki
  • Digital Storytelling in Vocational Education and Training

Resources

• Wikis in Education (portal)
• Cool Cat Teacher: How I Use Wikis and Wiki Collaboration Across the Curriculum
• 7 Things You Should Know about Wikis (from EduCause)
• Julie Lindsay's Delicious tags for 'Wiki best practice'
• MediaShift: Your guide to wikis

    Collaboration and global communication

            Flat Classroom Project

• Project Topics
• Project Resources
• In the News
• Winning student page on Virtual Communication
• Main features of student output:
  • Personal video embedded on the wiki page
  • Collaborative information using text and other multimedia
  • Evidence of collaboration via discussion tab

• International Edublog Awards winner 2006 for Best Wiki

   Web 2.0 Tools used with the wiki to support online collaboration

• Audio recording, podcasting and wiki page embedding (e.g. Evoca)
• Video hosting and and embedding (e.g. YouTube and Google Videos)
• Communication tools (e.g. Skype, IM)

  Other best practice examples of wiki-centric projects

• 1001 Flat World Tales and MS 1001 Flat World Tales
• International Teen Life
• Expert Voices (Darren Kuropatwa)
• A Million Penguins

     Getting started with wikis

• Wikispaces for teachers
• PBWiki: It's as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich
• WetPaint