Imagine being able to collaborate with your faculty without leaving your office. This is why wiki’s are so cool. Wiki’s are collaboration tools that anyone can edit (with rights), and a great way to share ideas. Sharing ideas is crucial to the success of our students. Teachers have to collaborate to most effectively reach the students in their school. Being able to collaborate at a distance would make things so much easier.
Wiki’s are not only for teachers. Students can use this technology for group projects, posting book reviews, and sharing ideas with the class. The following website has some great ideas for ways to use Wiki’s in the classroom or Media Center.
http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
The area I am most interested in exploring is how wiki’s can be effective for Elementary School Students. In the above website it mentions using a wiki as a way to run Literacy circles. The Students can use it as an avenue for discussion on the book. Creating book reviews, and making connections. The students would then take ownership of their work because it is posted for everyone to see.
As far as how wiki’s can be used in the media center, the ideas are endless. It could be a place for teachers to brag on lessons they received from the media specialist. This way other teachers would know what is going on in the media center and it could generate more interest. Also have an area where teachers and students can submit book reviews or even book talks they have recorded. It can also be used much like the literacy circle idea. IF the media center has a book club they could use it as means to discuss the book, and share ideas.
I feel like wiki’s are underused and underappreciated because people are afraid of the fact that anyone can edit it, and the information may not always be correct. In the elementary school setting I think it is important that student’s submissions be checked and approved before they can be posted. This is help students understand what good work is and how it can help other understand a topic. I also think it means really teaching students what a good digital citizen looks like and acts like in a digital community. The media specialist can do lessons on this before the class begins their wiki experience. There is so much potential here! This tool could lead to high level thinking in all grades and really showcase what students know!
I really agree with your comment that people are afraid of the fact that a wiki can be edited. I think that we, as educators, need to get away from the thought that the students are all out to purposely post false information or to delete someone else's information.You are right on target that one of our jobs is to teach them the responsible way to use wikis (and the internet in general) so they will do the right thing. This is where and how these kids will learn. If we don't use it or teach them to use it because we don't want them to do it wrong...that's just silly. You have some great ideas for a media specialist to use wikis as well. My only concern is that we are getting even more cut off from face to face interactions with the other adults in our buildings. But even so, the convenience of using wikis for collaborating on each person's schedule is a great benefit for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI find the idea of collaborating on a teacher wiki that you and your teammate describe above to be very exciting. There are three of us in the English department at my school. We are constantly emailing stuff back and forth that gets lost in the shuffle of everyday email. Sometimes we are working on a unit or lesson plan jointly and would like to make changes but can only comment. If we set up a wiki, we could post things and edit each others work before settling on a final version.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the same could happen for students. The civics teacher and I are currently working on a joint social justice project. The students have to choose an issue in groups and develop an action plan. A wiki would be the ideal place for this to happen. The kids could collaborate and the teachers could review and comment on their direction/writing while it is a work in progress instead of waiting until they turn it in and then having to redirect their efforts. I cannot wait to try this out.
I am very much looking forward to using a Wiki in my class! I imagine that my first use will be to use the Wiki to create as a forum for a book talk. It is such a great to use for collaboration for teachers and students. Yes, I agree that Wikis are probably not used frequently because teachers are afraid that it can be easily edited by anyone. You suggested that teachers should review all work before it is posted. I agree that could be helpful in some instances but not always practical. Instead of having the teacher review all work before it is posted, maybe the teacher could review post every other day or select a student or parent volunteer to keep an eye on the Wiki. The last thing I would want to do is to create more work for the teacher
ReplyDeleteI also agree that, as teachers, it is our job to teach responsibility and proper posting etiquette. Wikis would be a great tool to use in the classroom and media center. It might cut off face to face contact, but currently, I rarely see the other 6th grade team on my hall during planning period because they have conferences with parents or/and meetings with each other. Only during lunch do we really get to “catch up”. If we did use wikis in the classroom, we may get more time for planning because we would not have to be in meetings all day with the other teachers. Wikis has a lot of great uses, but I think it is also about moderation.
ReplyDeleteI like the point you made about students taking ownership of their work. Elementary school students are at the right age to be taught how important it is to do their best. Elementary students are the ones who like for others to see their work. The more their work can be seen by others, the better it tends to make them feel. When students have the opportunity to see work done by classmates, it can serve as motivation to improve upon their own work. It also reinforces being creative by showing there are different ways to do the same assignment.
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DeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI like your suggestion to use Wikis to collaborate with other teachers! I work in a school with 150 teachers, and I'm in the 9th grade building. Other than the teachers in my building, I don't see too many other English teaches unless it is at a meeting, but a Wiki would be a great tool to use to vertically plan. We are constantly talking about making sure we are vertically aligned to give students the best experience in 9th-12th English classes, so us having a space to do that would be great and so easy!
Ashley H
After reading all these greats posts on wiki's I have been thinking of ways to incorporate them into my elementary media center. I was thinking about having some of my students create book reviews and book talks. Students would much rather see/hear what a fellow student thinks about a book than their teacher or media specialist. This could open up the doors to books that many children would never think about reading.
ReplyDeleteI liked your idea of student using wiki' for book discussions. This could even be helpful when the Reading Team is getting ready for the Helen Ruffing Reading Bowl Competition. This enables them to discuss the books without requiring them to physically meet everyday.
I agree that wiki's are underused and underappreciated because many people believe they are difficult to manage or secure due to the fact that they can be edited. However, there are ways to manage a wiki and the postives ourweigh the negatives.
Emily, I like the idea of using wikis as a way for faculty and staff to collaborate with each other. While collaboration is important, I would not dare ask for another meeting with a teacher or team, and I hesitate to take up much of their time during their designated weekly department meetings.
ReplyDeleteI can see myself using wikis for literature circles. This is a way for parents to view the things that their child is working on for part of the school day and to compare the effort of their student to that of their counterparts.
In the media center, I am interested in a brag wiki. In addition to the things that you mentioned, it would be good for teachers to brag on the wonderful resources that were found in the media center and note the GPS that the resources relate to. While shelving books, I realized that my school’s media center has material on almost every topic that is discussed in third grade. I’m sure that there are many teachers in my school that do not realize the extent of our collection.
I think it will be beneficial for elementary students to go through the entire writing process before adding to the wiki. If they examine their own writing during the revise, edit, and proofreading stages, a better product will be posted to the wiki. Also, I would probably make my students type their post in word (using spell and grammar checks) and then simply copying and pasting the final product.