Jul 23 2009
Wiki or blog or both?
In this week’s workshop I learned about Wikis. I had created one a while back but never used it. I have been a fan of blogs and wasn’t really all that clear on how to use a Wiki or why I would use one. I still have some questions and concerns that perhaps you can help me with.
I found that Wikis were really simple to use. We all created accounts with Wikispaces. It is very easy to get an account. Be sure that you specify that you are using it for Educational Use in order to get all the features that you can for free. In the workshop I learned all sorts of little tricks on how to import files and how to create more Wikis. You get a fair bit of space to upload files and pictures. I was really happy to see that my little trick for including Flickr pictures on my pages works with Wikis too (see the screencast on how to do this by clicking here). It is easy to embed video and calendars and to manage the pages and contributors on a Wiki. The idea of collaboration on the Wiki appeals to me but being the control freak that I am, I have some concerns about using a Wiki with my students.
One of the things I really like about my blog is that I approve all the posts and comments that appear on it. Anytime anyone writes anything, their comments or posts wait until I see them and approve them before they appear on the blog for the rest of the world. If I understand it correctly I would not have that ability on a Wiki. I can decide who has permission to change the Wiki or to join in the discussion but once someone writes something it is out there. I understand that I can subscribe to my Wiki so that it alerts me to any changes that I have been made, but I worry that is a little after the fact.
The other concern that I have is that if a contributor writes something inappropriate I can correct it but the changes will always be visible in the history unless I remake the page. I can see how some enterprising students would get a kick out of writing something cheeky, saving it, even by accident or on a dare and then changing it so that their writing appears to be proper on the main page but their naughty exploits are still visible in the history for all to see. I don’t know if I want to be policing this. Sometimes students write things with the best intentions but don’t realize that a turn of phrase or use of words can be read the wrong way. Sometimes students share user ids and passwords with their most trustworthy and bestest friends only to have that trust betrayed and used against them. Having an opportunity for a second look before things go on air has been beneficial to both me and my students on the blog.
This year, I want to get my students collaborating on writing both in my class and with Nathan’s class. I am interested in how you might be using a Wiki with your class. At the moment I am leaning toward using Google Docs for the collaborative work and sticking with the blog for discussion and sharing. Any thoughts??
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Hi Jane. I think I mentioned before that I am a big supporter of using wikis in the classroom. In the month of June I made wikis the primary focus as we created two of them: one for our social studies unit on Early Civilizations and one for our poetry unit. We spent a great deal of time discussing how wikis work and how they can be abused. Basically I just told the students that we would be operating under a culture of trust. They could take the project seriously or they could sabotage each others work. I was astonished by how serious and focused they were. For the social studies wiki I had the class split into groups of 5-6, and they were providing feedback for each other (including other groups), suggesting links for research, and conducting their own in-class meetings to go over their material. The wiki project was every bit as successful as MPRadio! I understand your reluctance Jane, but I really do recommend that you try it out even on a minor project to start with (although you might want to wait until your class routines are established). If you do try it out I would definitely suggest that you subscribe to the updates. Here are the links to our work: http://www.gr5ec.wikispaces.com and http://www.gr5pa.wikispaces.com
I hope that this helps!
Mike
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Hi Jane. As a recent college grad and new teacher, I think wikis are wonderful – if monitored. I had a college professor who set up a wiki for one of my classes and had us write 3 entries each. It was a great learning experience for me. I plan to do a similar project for my sophomore history classes. I plan to set up a wiki for our lesson on World War II and let each student pick a topic. Each student will write a wiki page for their topic and post it. This will be a great study guide for students to use when studying for the final exam. We will be uploading all the articles during class, but I agree with Mike that showing the students trust will keep them honest.
I was a little unsure of how the entire process was going to work, but I spoke to a fellow teacher on Applebatch.com (a networking site for teachers) who is an Instructional Technology Specialist and she was able to give me easy directions.
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Hi Jane,
I am in the process of setting up a wiki for my Grade 4/5. I have never used a blog, but do have a wiki set up for my TLLP on UDL. It is a great tool, and I think we can do some great things in class.
My concern is with my students needing to each have an e-mail account. I would love to set up gmail for my students, but am concerned about security. I would like to know how other people have dealt with this issue. How have principals and boards dealt with it?
We both presented at the ECOO conference. You were great and served as a model for how I would also like to see my TLLP experience be developed further. It would be great to connect with you and Nathan to discuss your experiences.
I have tried to promote your site as much as I can! Great work here!!!
Cheers,
Dianne
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