Think #8: Wikis

I have to admit that most of what I know about wikis is limited to Wikipedia. And like perhaps you may be, I am leery of the site because accuracy is up to whoever entered text last. Yes, you can view the history of who edited the page and when...but a page could have originated by an expert and been edited by a ten year old.

So with such a perspective, I dived into Thing #8 with skepticism. Let's just say, I've changed my mind. For starters, check out a basic overview of wikis at The Wiki Walk Through. Not only will you find a very easy to understand explanation of wikis, but multiple ways to integrate wikis in all subjects at all grade levels. In exploring wikis further through this assignment, I have realized there really is more credit due to wikis than I was willing to give! For instance, when I went to the Book Lovers Wiki, I found a number of books I wanted to read thanks to the postings located there. I noticed on the Library for Life wiki, only librarians have access to edit giving substantial more credibility to the information found on that site. This would be a good site for research and simply to reference to help students understand definitions of literary terms, genre, etc.

Ideas for wiki use in education? Oh yes!!! I can see a wiki between a community of teachers being an excellent way to network and share ideas. Perhaps three or four schools are all teaching Romeo and Juliet in English. The wiki amongst the teachers can be a location where teachers share resources they used in planning or instructing. A classroom teacher could set up a wiki that the students could share about books they choose to read on their own, so other students might choose according to similar tastes. Or classrooms across the world from one another could share information on their particular cultures.