Wikis+for+teaching+and+learning

__**Content Navigation links **__ Introduction Uses for Learning Overview Classroom Management and Administration Professional Development Group Writing Projects Wikis as messenger boards Collaboration between schools


 * __ Wikis for Teaching and Learning __  **

media type="youtube" key="mdOKUeT0O-o&hl=en" height="355" width="425" __** Uses for Learning **__

We can’t believe how many people and educational organizations out there are using wiki as part of their every day teaching and learning. We found some great sites which discussed the applications – some at length and others, not so much. After working with a team to build a wiki ourselves, the implications are evident for group work, study and publishing or sharing of information. It allows people who might not be able to work together, due to distance especially, to do so. The ability to edit and change information has got to be good as well, as long as there are either editing rights established or there is a general culture of respect for the work being done. [|http://www.wikiineducation.com] discusses applications for wikis in teaching and learning. It categorises the “why” under these headings - I have made my own notes under each one: http://www.jot.com/gallery/ http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/internet/soa/Google-Spreadsheets/0,139023437,240063772,00.htm http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/WideOpenSpacesWikisReadyo/40498 says some very interesting things about wikis in education. **“In many respects, the wide-open ethic of wikis contrasts vividly with the traditional approaches of standard groupware and collaborative systems. Access restrictions, rigidly defined workflows, and structures are anathema to most wiki developers. What’s unique about wikis is that users define for themselves how their processes and groups will develop, usually by making things up as they go along.”** Another aspect they note is the way they see wiki as “**shared online sketchpads**” or spaces for mind-mapping or brainstorming. Students may share their learning through making lists of links and updating these regularly as they progress through a research project or area of study. They also give some examples of educators at the University of British Colombia using wikis in different and innovative ways e.g. __ Wikis are a great way to let your students know what’s going on in your course. You can present information on topics studied and give the opportunity for students to add their own information. Course work could even be completed on the wiki. Having a wiki will give the course an online classroom noticeboard as well as a filing cabinet of shared resources. Here’s an example from a yr 13 English class http://year13english.pbwiki.com/ You could use a wiki for letting students know about present and future assignments and make exemplars available, as well as showcasing student work. Course outlines and year plans could be made available to students where they can’t loose them. Homework could be shown on a wiki and those students who always forget to write it down wouldn’t have any excuse. In fact you could create a whole website for your course using a wiki. Here’s an example of a wiki for an entire department. https://finkspace.wikispaces.com/ __ **Professional development** __ Professional development is another use for wikis. They can be used as simply as a single page, as seen in this department wiki https://finkspace.wikispaces.com/Professional+Learning or they can be quite complex and be used to serve whole communities. A wiki can be used to present information for professional use in many formats as well as providing a vehicle for sharing resources. Resources could be shared in the wiki itself or through the use of bookmarks. Through wikis teachers can be linked to websites of interest and increase their connectivity in the form of links to blogs. Online professional development group activities can be conducted through wikis too eg http://centralnorthshore.wikispaces.com/. Some wikis like this one seem to do just about everything http://virtualnorth.wikispaces.com/ICT+Forum What an awesome resource!
 * ** Easily create simple websites: ** Wiki technology is very simple for the user, therefore it is much easier for students to use than conventional websites. This means the learner will concentrate more on the topic than the technology in most cases. A well presented result can be achieved easily, complete with graphics and links – instructions are easy to follow, so little or no training is necessary.
 * ** Project development with peer review: ** A wiki page can be a useful resource, for helping students develop a piece of work over time. Students can write and submit, receive feedback from peers or teachers, revise their work and re-submit. All the changes can be successfully tracked, which means teachers and students can see work evolve and develop. This is great if we want our students to be critical thinkers!
 * ** Group authoring: ** We found that, as adult students using the wiki, we developed themes to study then we discussed and edited our work – posting comments and discussing changes. Wiki allow students to pull together as a team – using a wiki may build collegiality and a feeling of teamwork.
 * ** Track a group project: ** Because of the nature of wikis, students may track their own and others’ entries in a group project. Working in this way develops a certain sense of responsibility – students know their individual and team work will be viewed by their group members and their teacher, so hopefully they will respond to the challenge. Being in a rather public domain may also apply a certain amount of pressure for work to be of reasonable quality. It may also save time for students, by allowing them to look at resources and sources of information used by others in the group, then provides a central area to collate and prepare their presentation. Also each student could have their own page, which may be edited by the teacher and the student only, as well as the group page. This means students individual efforts and understandings may be tracked, both within the group context and separately.
 * ** Data Collection: ** Because wiki are so easy to edit/add to, collecting data can be relatively simple. Spreadsheets or tables can be used for this e.g. Google Spreadsheets or JotSpot Spreadsheets are two good options, easily displayed in a wiki.
 * ** Review classes & teachers: ** Wiki can give students a forum where they may review their courses and performance of their teachers, and provide feedback for their perusal. This a great idea as it really involves students and makes them feel empowered, especially when teachers take note of what they say and respond, which may also be done through the wiki.
 * ** Presentations: ** Wiki can be a great way to share students work and present to others. That could mean that students access a wiki through individual computers in class, or perhaps the wiki could be viewed by a group through the use of an interactive whiteboard.
 * Their faculty of Applied Science links wiki into its course management authoring, so that teams can easily collaborate. This quote from their Technology Co-ordinator, Jim Sibley, says it all really –"The ability to spawn whole sites or a series of pages astonishes people when they first see it. . . . You can quickly map out pages to cover all aspects of complex processes or projects."
 * Wiki are used by some departments to store and organise information.
 * Planning in team teaching
 * As part of an English course (some of which is delivered by wiki, providing support for collaborative experiments in writing and "as a prompt for reflection on the nature of online writing and reading." (quote from Teresa Dobson – Assistant Professor).
 * Classroom/course management and administration** __

__**Group Writing Projects**__ The uses for an oline writing space in the classroom are many, especially as group writing projects. Wikis could be used to debate course topics and assigned readings. They could also be used as a goup journal for a collaborative project. Each member could record their thoughts and tasks as they are completed also allowing the teacher to check who is doing what and where they are up to. A class essay is another use for a wiki. Here's an example of a collaborative storytelling wiki where students chose their own ending to the story http://terrythetennisball.wikispaces.com/. Students could also revise or edit Wikipeadia pages. With these uses also comes the need to teach the students the rules for writing on a wiki. The class could produce a style guide; a guide to the writing style and customs of their wiki. An example can be found at  [|http://199.17.178.148/~morgan/cgi-bin/blogsAndWiki.pl?StyleGuide].

__**Wikis as messenger boards in a school setting**__ [[image:http://urbanscoutmusic.com/images/message_board.jpg width="171" height="171" align="right"]]
I can see the potential to use Wikis in the growing school setting where communication between colleagues is important. Instead of waiting for the ‘daybook’ to circulate the school with scribbled messages to share with the students, or information for teachers only, a ‘Messenger’ space could be set up on a wiki site. This could have different parts to it e.g sports notices, reminders etc. There could also be a section where teachers write reminders about meetings, add agenda items, up coming social events, due reports, birthday shouts! The teacher messenger board could be password protected to ensure privacy.The great part would be the ease for adding in things as people think about it and then start fresh either each week or each day. It could be common place to open up this page first thing in morning while checking your emails and doing the one hundred and one other things a busy teacher does and keep up to speed with the ‘happenings’ of the place. It may even cut down on the morning tea announcements! An example of this is from the school called R ichmond Hill High School. They have a Technology Committee page where all staff training information is put on. They have a messenger page.

__**Collaboration between schools**__ Principals from small rural schools and sole charge Principals have an enormous responsibility. They often have to be master of a great deal without a colleague on site who can support them or bounce ideas off. I can see a wiki space as a great tool to access to maintain contact with other Principals and teachers who may be a specialist in a certain field or knows who to contact when faced with a certain challenge. There could be course details needed to be posted as reminders between cluster groups or simply a great reading or site found which they would like to share. Once again these postings could be password protected if privacy is required. An example of a wiki which was developed to provide a space in which secondary foreign language majors, student teachers, cooperating teachers, and university instructors can share insights, exchange ideas, solve problems, and collect useful materials through collaboration with a professional network of colleagues. A blog which I found after reading the rest of the groups great work on 'Blogs and the benefits for teaching and learning', was again promoting the advantages of the technology teachers all over the world can access to reduce the isolation some may feel in a school setting. [|Kim Cofino] works in the International School Bangkok in Thailand she was discussing using web 2.0 tools to develop professional learning communities for international school teachers.The use of wikis and many other tools was shared.

