First I thought I would begin this post with a little background information about Wikis. Wikibooks (2010) states that the word Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word “wiki-wiki” which means quick. The very first wiki was created by Ward Cunningham in 1995, He used the word wiki-wiki as a substitute for "quick", his website Wikiwikiweb was created and designed for programmers to share and explore their knowledge and information about software development. Most people are familiar with the popular wiki network Wikipedia (encyclopedia).
This is the link to my experimental Wiki; it was created in Wetpaint http://jungle-animals.wetpaint.com/page/Animal+Profile. I found this online program was user friendly and was self explanatory to create and edit a wiki site. I did however find it a little time consuming and it is only just a simple example (test), but it did give me a good idea on the set up and some of the possible uses of Wikis. I decided to create/design this Wiki to suit the theme/unit my last prac class explored – Prep. Their unit focus was Animals Around the World, looking at different types of animals for example Farm, jungle and Antarctic animals. Wiki’s are an ideal way to communicate, collaborate, add and change learning material with and for student’s, my idea was to use this tool to allow students to learn and contribute to their learning over the course of the unit. Students would do this by working individually or with others to share and explore each other’s ideas, questions, information and answers. I believe “everybody has a voice” would be a great way to describe the use of a Wiki in the classroom.
There are many benefits of using wiki’s in the classroom:
• Providing the Learning Manager with a valuable opportunity to communicate with the students on a different level (individually and as a whole group)
• Students are able to communicate with the Learning Manager at any time in any place (at home on the weekend)
• Students can communicate, contribute and interact with their peers (develop positive rapport and support each other throughout the learning journey). This would also encourage the students to develop a sense of ownership, meaning and value for the task/s.
• The opportunity to plan and involving students and even parents in the unit content
• Providing the parents with the opportunity to post any queries or comments onto the blog
• Wiki’s are a different and engaging way to implement learning experiences and assessment
• The use of Wiki’s develops skills such as teamwork, drafting, editing, collaborative writing and negotiation.
If there are Pro’s there is always Con’s:
• Public Wiki’s are not checked for accuracy so it is important for students to ensure they check for reliable, truthful and valid information.
• The possibility of vandalism, being a public site there is the possibility that someone could post inappropriate content (there is the option to add a posting and editing password but this generally has a fee) (Wikibooks, 2010).
• Ensure all students have equal opportunity to access a computer and internet to explore and contribute to the Wiki.
• A Learning Manager needs to be able to give up some control (pedagogical issues) of the content and allow students some independence.
• It is more than likely that a Learning Manager will need to comply with school policy and receive parental permission to publish student’s work/pictures on the web.
References
Wikibooks. (2010, May 12). Change Issues in Curriculum and Instruction/Wikis in the Classroom. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from Wikibooks- Open books for an open world: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Change_Issues_in_Curriculum_and_Instruction/Wikis_in_the_Classroom
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