A Wiki is a web page that can be accessed from anywhere that has Internet connection and a web browser. According to the article which lists 7 things you should know about Wikis, Wikis can store text, sound, pictures, and videos. Anyone can add, delete, or edit the material contained on a Wiki, which can be a positive or a negative. For example, this is wonderful for sharing and collaborating on documents within a group; however it is not great because someone can maliciously delete your hard work.
I had my first experience using Wikis two years ago as a third grade teacher. I went to our media specialist with a request to collaborate with her on our end of the year science project presentations. The students were doing their projects in pairs and I wanted them to be able to share their experiments and findings with their classmates, but I wanted to use something other than PowerPoint. She suggested using a Wiki so that both students could work on it from home if needed. I had never heard of Wikis, but was willing to try them after she explained what a Wiki was and how easy they were to create and use. I knew we might spend a few days in the computer lab, but students would also be working in the classroom and from home. Wikis sounded like the perfect option because she explained how the students could work on them anywhere that had Internet access.
We spent two weeks on our science projects and creating and presenting the Wikis. The students were able to use the Wikis easily with only a few days of training and some additional guidance. The only problem we ran into was that one student deleted another group’s work. Even though we discussed the Information Literacy Standard 8, Practice ethical behavior in regard to information and information technology, he did it because he could. You know you’ve had one of those students before. He was able to do this because Wikis can be edited at any time by anyone. Luckily the group’s work that he had deleted had already been presented and their grade had been recorded. We got lucky! This one incident did not sway my decision; Wikis were effective for use in the classroom.
Not only are Wikis effective for use in the classroom, they are great for use in the media center as well. After viewing the Apalachee High School Media Center's Wiki, I noticed that they use their Wiki to show Title Shots, display Mini-Posters to promote books, and show Media Movies. I think it is a great idea to incorporate videos of the media center tour, Orientation, and Book Promotions on the Wiki. What a way to get your patrons excited about reading! Also, as suggested by the article, A Wiki Gives a Worthy Book New Life, Wikis are a great way to share lesson ideas, videos and images related to books that might otherwise not have an abundance of information available online. In conclusion, Wikis can be a wonderful tool for communicating and collaborating with others.
Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you and your media specialist took the time to seek out an alternative to just another PowerPoint. Thanks for including what went wrong; it definitely helps to know about the negative and positive. Just curious...was the boy who deleted the other group's work disciplined?
I appreciate the information about how wikis can be effectively utilized in the media center. I now need to think outside the box and create ways to highlight wikis in my media center.
Yes, he was due to academic dishonesty. His parents were called, his grade was effected, and he had end of the year privileges taken away.
DeleteKudos to you from taking the time to teach students how to use a wiki! I know that is one of the things that often keeps me from using new technology with students, feeling like I don’t have the time to spend days teaching them how. But just diving in there and allowing for a learning opportunity that expands outside of the classroom is precisely why I shouldn’t let this keep me from using wikis and other forms of technology in my own classroom!
ReplyDeleteI think that with any technology, there is going to be a headache or something that doesn’t go exactly as planned, but we just have to keep in mind that the pros far outweigh the cons, just as you did with your situation of the student deleting another’s work. That is a scary aspect of wikis, but I think it is important to build an atmosphere of trust within the classroom, so that maybe that will keep others from doing harm to other’s hard work. But as you noted, we always seem to have that one! I really like that you used the wiki to help with group work, that makes it so much easier to get work done when not in the classroom.
Thank you for sharing your personal experience with using Wikis in the classroom! I love reading stories where classroom teachers collaborate with media specialists to promote learning with technology! It sounds like your science project wiki assignment was a success.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I like about Wikis is that the Wiki administrator can go back and undo changes that Wiki members have made if necessary. It might have been possible to retrieve the information that the boy deleted by going into the 'recent changes' page and undoing his changes. Just a thought for next time :)
I love that Wikis can incorporate text AND other media like pictures and embedded videos and definitely plan to use them with my older students in my future media center. Thank you for sharing!
Actually, that is exactly how my media specialist retreived the information. I had forgottten that she did that since it has ben awhile since the incident. It wasn't necessary because, like I said, we had already graded the assignment. She did retreive it anyway, just so the groups's parents could view it if they wanted to. Thanks for the reminder!
DeleteYour blog has enlightened me with many of the pros and cons of using wikis. I like to live in the world of rose colored glasses where everyone does what they are suppose to, when they are suppose to, and how they are suppose to. However, your blog reminded me that such an environment can ultimately impossible in the world of education. Using wikis with students is a great idea for sharing and collaborating ideas but there could always be the one rotten apple that can try to ruin the benefits for everyone. Since wiki have the function that also allow deletions you hope that the students would be steered toward using the technology only in a positive manner but your post remind us to stay alert for such discrepancies can happen until a certain maturity has been obtained by the user. We as educator must remain diligent in our students work as they access the powerful new tools that we provide them.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine the "what ifs" that could have happened in our youth had we been presented with such technologies at young ages. It is help for us to remember that we too were young and not so smart and we must always try our best to teach the best practice possible.
I, too, teach third grade and am encouraged to hear that your students found Wikis to be easy to use and an excellent tool for completing their projects. I hate that one student had to put a damper on the project, but hopefully he learned his lesson.
ReplyDeleteI like the ideas you gave at the end for using Wikis in the media center. I think that they would provide a great tool for sharing resources, videos, visuals, and more. In one of the readings I did for this assignment I read about how Wikis can be a helpful tool for school faculty because everyone can edit and update the content rather than relying on one person who is in charge of this task. It is a great way for everyone to be involved in keeping information current and adding new information as soon as it becomes available for the group.