Archive for Wiki

Using Wikis in the Classroom

April 13, 2007 at 1:13 pm · Filed under Wiki

In using wikis in the classroom, the first thing that every teacher is concerned about is securing the Wiki so that it is not tainted by vandals with inappropriate additions to the wiki.  This can be secured through “…Web-based wiki sites that feature a password and login system similar to Weblogs….Or similar software can be installed on your server and run locally” (Richardson, Will.  (2006).  Wikis in schools.  Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, p. 64). 

 Richardson states in his book that Wikis are a very “democratic process of knowledge creation (p. 65).”  In using wikis, the students:

1.  learn how to publish content

2.  learn to use collaborative skills

3.  learn to negotiate with other on correctness, meaning, and relevance

4.  (in some cases) teach each other

The most obvious use of a wiki in the classroom is to present a piece of the curriculum and have the students contribute, edit, and publish the information as it pertains to that curriculum.  Defining vocabulary or concepts, contributing to literature circles, collaborative book reports, problem solving, spreadsheets, and many more collaborations can be created on a classroom wiki.  As a former English teacher, I would have celebrated using a wiki to get students to edit each others work.  It makes students problem solvers, create thinkers, as well as collaborators.  They not only edit the wiki but must also support their ideas and contributions.  A wiki makes the students responsible for their own learning.  Teachers know that we don’t teach, we facilitate learning.  The old saying that “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink” applies to most teaching.  In the case of using wikis for classroom learning, the horse (student) must drink (think and learn) the water (the idea or concept).  Check this site out about classroom management and teaching.

Finally, wikis can be used to collaboratively write curriculum with colleagues throughout the school district.  As a classroom teacher, I used to hate long drawn out curriculum meetings where we had to listen to everyone’s opinion.  There was always that one person who domineered the meeting.  In the case of using wikis, the curriculum can be written and edited from your school or home computer taking less time away from the classroom.

We as educators must educate ours and embrace all forms of social networking.  Use of wikis and blogs will better prepare our students for the real world in lieu of rote memorization and static learning. 

Check out this review of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.

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Should Britanica be concerned about it’s future?

April 13, 2007 at 12:28 pm · Filed under Blogs, Libraries, Wiki

Most students have found inaccuracies or outdated material in an encyclopedia. Every librarian knows that it takes at least FIVE years for a new edition of a hard bound version of an encyclopedia to be published. The online versions of encyclopedias aren’t much better as they go through a similar review and editing process before publishing. The editors must find individuals with an expertise in a certain area to write an article, and then the article must go through the publishers rigorous review and editing process before the article is deemed worthy of publication in the esteemed encyclopedia.

Encyclopedia publishers also pick and choose topics for the encyclopedia. Students often go to an encyclopedia for information and do not find that particular subject or keyword covered in the encyclopedia. This is usually the case because the encylopedia is too limited in the amount of space used or too old to have the “latest and greatest” information (even online). This factor alone limits the usability of an encyclopedia to gain information. In the information age where the public has almost instantaneous access to information, an encyclopedia could be considered a dinosaur.

As a school librarian, I already know that the students go to Google or Wikipedia.com or other online services on the library computer before they go to a hard copy of an encyclopedia. I’ve been in school libraries where they have chosen not to order new editions of encyclopedias as they were already paying for an online service and the students didn’t use the hard bound copies of the encyclopedias anyway. At my current school, the only students that use the in-house encyclopedias are those that have been restricted from using the Internet for violating the “acceptable use policies” of the school district.

With this knowledge, where does Wikipedia.com fit into the future of information gathering? Having read _Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms_ by Will Richardson, it is clear that Wikis are the future of information gathering. Information articles are posted on Wikipedia.com and edited by the readers post haste. If there are inaccuracies, they are usually corrected within days, hours, or minutes. Furthermore, experts in fields are allowed access to Wikipedia articles, whereas articles in an encyclopedia are only accessed by those invited by the publishers.

There is one of two ways that encyclopedias are headed in the future: 1) they must become more wiki-like themselves, or 2) they must be revered as the final word or authoritative knowledge in which case, they may be dooming themselves to extinction.

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