Wikis in the Classroom
3rd September 2005 by Ben Rimes
To save space and time on the podcast I’m outlining what a wiki is and how it works. If you already have a good working understanding of a wiki site, or use them in your teaching already, please feel free to skip ahead to the podcast. All of the important “whys” of using such a tool can be heard in the there.
What is a Wiki –
A wiki is a type of web page. Much the same way you can share your personal thoughts on a web site with a blog, or have a discussion with others on a web site with a forum, a web site with a wiki allows for online collaborative creation. In other words, a wiki is the name commonly given to any web site in which the users, or web surfers, can actually alter the web page while viewing it so that subsequent viewers are reading an entirely new page, or article. Users have the power to directly edit text, images, and links on a web site with a wiki.
How do you use a Wiki? –
The vast majority of wiki web sites are closed to the general public and used exclusively by small groups of people working on a common project. However, there are a number of very popular, and powerful, wiki-driven web sites, on which any user can register to become a member. Once a username and password are chosen the user visits a page on the web site they wish to alter, login using their account, and then click a link or edit button that opens up a word processing interface with the contents of the page they’re on. If you can use Microsoft Word, using a wiki web site is just as easy. The user enters or alters text, images, and links, then saves their work. The changes are saved as a version under their account and the web page is instantly changed to reflect the new version they’ve just created. If future versions created by other users don’t seem appropriate or as polished, returning to an older version is as simple as clicking on a button to display that older version.
Why Wiki? –
Listen to the podcast and you’ll hear all about why I believe this powerful, and somewhat intimidating tool, should be used in our classrooms. I’ll be discussing two excellent web sites that are based on the wiki format, www.wikipedia.org, and the English language version of www.wikibooks.org.
Podcast – Tech Savvy Educator – v.1_2
September 6th, 2005 at 7:00 am
Back to the Classroom
September 7th, 2005 at 12:57 pm
This is the first time I’ve heard a podcast. I kinda like it.
September 7th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Oh yeah, and the wiki-idea could be very interesting as a lesson on fictional/factual information on the web as well. Plus, students love to be an authority on a subject, and this is a great way for students to show their expertise (and become more knowledgeable!)
April 24th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
[...] While collaborative, the problem of having important notes deleted exists as the teacher would have to carefully monitor the file after each edit to ensure the key points were covered and accurately noted. That takes us to the more technologically enhanced end of collaborative note-taking. Get yourself a wiki, one of the fabulous sites that allows users to login in, change the content on a page, add new content, or delete current content. The beauty of the wiki is that all revisions are saved as versions so that students in the future could go back and see just what was changed and possibly why. Older information that might have been important, but was lost in an edit could easily be restored. Many sites such as PB Wiki or Seed Wiki will allow you to get a free wiki with multiple accounts so each student can have their own personal login to edit, share, and discuss notes. [...]
April 15th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
[...] Wikis in the Classroom [...]
April 29th, 2009 at 8:33 am
well, my comments are far from my related website name of golf, but i am hearing pros and cons on the “wiki”. i have learned in class, the more the subject produces questions, the more the kid will pursue the anwsers. learning. so, i am not a smart person, but if it works to an end, we need to have the option for classes.
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