wikis4l

= = =__How Can Wikis Be Used In Education?__ =

====The use of wikis in education is a relatively new idea. However, they can be useful for both teachers and students. ====

What are the implications for teaching and learning?
==Wikis might be the easiest and most effective Web-based collaboration tool in any instructional portfolio. Their inherent simplicity provides students with direct (and immediate) access to a site’s content, which is crucial in group editing or other collaborative project activities. A wiki’s versioning capability can show the evolution of thought processes as students interact with the site and its contents. These collaborative projects help promote “pride of authorship” and ownership in the team’s activities. In addition, wikis are being used as e-portfolios, illustrating their utility as a tool for collection and reflection. Collaboration using a wiki is not limited to students. Faculty can use wikis to collaborate on projects, whether editing a textbook, preparing a journal article, or assembling a syllabus or reading list. Wikis might also prove to be an ideal vehicle for soliciting ongoing input for research or projects where community input can help inform and direct subsequent investigation. The possibilities for using wikis as the platform for collaborative projects are limited only by one’s imagination and time. Wiki enabled projects can provide various levels of site access and control to team members, offering a fine-tuning element that enhances the teaching and learning experience. ==


==Specific Pedagogical Potential  ==


= =  1. Anyone can input, but others remove the poor quality contributions.  2. Wikis allow everyday users to create and edit any page. It encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by non-technical users.  <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 3. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis work in real time. People take time to think before they follow up some edit. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 4. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wiki technology is text-based, therefore the emphasis is on quality content creation and/or comprehension. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 5. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis permit public document construction, that is, distributed authorship. Co-authoring is complex, whether in the real or the virtual worlds. There appear to be many ways of writing together and roles can vary. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 6. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis complicate the evaluation of writing. It is usually impossible to identity contributions to a wiki. This poses many concerns, but the advantages of anonymity may outweigh the disadvantages. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 7. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis promote negotiation and decision making. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 8. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis permit collaborative document editing, or open editing, although there are concerns about the potential to “destroy” others’ work. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 9. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis permit the public to publish and writing for a “real” audience seems to be highly motivating. Feedback in an educational context, is key. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 10. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis make feedback intensely public and potentially durable. Educators can insist that students read and respond to others, but defining appropriate feedback and guidelines for its equitable distribution is difficult. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 11. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis work on volunteer collaboration. The voluntary nature of wikis involving “opting in” to knowledge construction, may prove to be the essential component of creative and sustainable participation. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 12. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis enable complete anonymity. The need for responsible and ethical public speech across potentially extremely large audiences needs no elaboration. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 13. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Wikis endorse particular ways of writing. Wikis have no rules; non-interference with respect to creativity is high. 14. Wikis require trust: trust the people, trust the process and enable trust-building. Building and enabling trust may prove to be too great a challenge to ask of educators who already lack time and resources. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">

> <span style="font-size: 80%; color: rgb(0,0,255); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> =<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> = <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; background-color: #000000;">** Some specific wiki uses within education ** <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000cff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> ·   <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Any class project with a reference or encyclopaedic format, including instructions, manuals, glossaries, and the like. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> ·  <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A class or group project with a bibliographic format; gathering websites related to a topic, annotating, ranking, and organizing them. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> ·  <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A letter or statement presented on behalf of the class. These documents occur often enough in the business world, where the "on behalf" basically means that everyone involved signed off on a draft. On a wiki, such a project would offer everyone a better chance to make a contribution. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> ·  <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A handbook or textbook. Students could build a guide to correct punctuation and be evaluated as a class. Thus, every student would have a stake in the project and would likely benefit from the instruction it contained. Students also become familiar with "textbook" English and its avoidance of personal-sounding prose. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> ·  <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Any other project that does not require specified authorship or protected documents. Wikis are authored by communities, not individuals. <span style="font-size: 140%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-size: 180%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; color: rgb(0,0,89); font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-Light','sans-serif';">

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**<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(0,128,0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; background-color: rgb(0,0,0);">External Links about the Educational Implications of Wikis: **
=<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="color: rgb(0,7,255); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> = <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="color: rgb(0,7,255); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> []

[|Wiki Pedagogy]

[|Derek's blog about Wiki pedagogy] <span style="display: block; color: rgb(0,7,255); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgb(0,0,0); font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%; color: rgb(0,7,255); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Here are some clips from YouTube: 1. A Platform for Innovation in the Classroom: This clip provides a few practical suggestions about how a wiki can be used through a range of curriculum areas. media type="youtube" key="ELwWDrIkSnI" height="219" width="353" 2. Promoting Collaborative Learning Using Wikis media type="youtube" key="ul9YM7QZZis" height="219" width="358"

====**<span style="display: block; font-size: 180%; color: rgb(0,128,0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; background-color: rgb(0,0,0); text-align: left;">Here are few examples of wikis used for educational purposes: **====

<span style="display: block; color: rgb(0,7,255); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgb(0,0,0); font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%; color: rgb(0,7,255); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> __**For Students (Individually & within the classroom):**__

A wiki is a collaborative tool that allows a group or class of children or students to contribute their ideas or information to create a bigger piece of the puzzle. In this case Terry The Tennis Ball is a collaborative story writing concept where students could create a piece of the story to evolve to a range of different stories.

One recently popular use of a wiki in education is the creation of e-portfolios. These are created by the students and show their achievements and thoughts, giving them ownership of the space: Jess' E-Portfolio

This class use their wiki (Class Topic) as their classroom topic book. The children take responsibility to create and edit the spaces within the wiki to share their work about a given topic. This promotes thinking and contributing within a group space.

This Dunedin teacher has set up this wiki (Room 16) to share children's work, achievements, news, language practice, information, numeracy practice and other classroom programmes. This is a great example of a successful wiki. <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">
 * __For Staff:__**

Toko School has created a wetpaint wiki for a professional development area for staff promoting ideas that will be successful through the school: [|Toko School, NZ]

This wiki was set up for staff to share their ideas about Web 2.0 tools to use in their classrooms: [|Teacher's Lounge]

School is Cool wiki was created for teachers to share their lesson plans, homework and resources with students, parents and teachers. It is a great way to remove an element of paperwork and create a permanent record of learning. Also, lesson plans mean that relievers would find it easier to step into the classroom and follow existing plans: [|School is Cool]