Thing # 16 - Wikis

Wikis are the first thing I did in the 23 things, as I needed that knowledge for an early class assignment. I really enjoy wikis and can see many uses for them.

A good place to start is with the video Wikis in Plain English. Like the rest of the Commoncraft video collection, it is a simple and effective way to explain wikis to anyone, even 10 yesr old kids. I recently used the video in an introductory lesson with resource 5th graders. Even the students with processing problems were able to comprehend the idea of a wiki and to use a wiki site that same day. I used it to encourage them to respond in writing to their reading comprehension questions and to respond in writing to their student peers writings as well. It was well-receicved by the students and their teachers, including a student teacher who knew nothing about them.

I think wikis have many uses, particularly if you need to share and modify information among a group of people. I am using it personally to help manage my canoeing and kayaking instruction program and to disseminate to and share information with my fellow instructors.

I can see teachers using it as a class resource to post assignments and share student work and accomplishments. Students could use them for reasearch projects and to collaboratively solve math problems or study for test. Librarians already use them, as evidenced by the plethora of excellent libarary wiki sites out there. I think wikis will be a very large piece of my future. I can even see a use for them to share and interpret assessments among my diagnostician coworkers.