Wikis

So I just read jerry's blog about wikis and it got me intrigued to find out more about using wikis within the classroom. I haven't done all that much research just yet, but I am keen to see where the path leads. One of the goals in the school I'm currently teaching in is to see how wikis and blogs can assist in the classroom, in particular with our concluding conversations at the end of a science or social science unit.

One of the concerns I have with creating something that is open for all to read is the anonomity of students and if we will be able to keep their identities closed off for strangers or other people of concern. This is addressed in Richardsons article. He says one way to help with that is for the teacher to loosen the reigns a little and give students more freedom over the editorial side of things. If something that has been added is not suitable, students will take it upon themselves to get rid of it. Whilst this is a good idea in theory, its still a scary thought for my as a teacher to allow my students such free reign over something as big as this. I guess that will ultimately be a personal goal I'd need to work on to achieve. Richardson also suggests using a login and password wiki, which will also aid in security.

Having a class wiki would work quite well in my classroom once I get my head around it more. My students work in collaborative pairs to answer their scenarios, so the wiki would just extend their abilities to work collaborativley. They would need to discuss information with each other and agree on what would be considered 'correct' before publishing it to the wiki.

The school I am teaching at the moment runs their units for Science and Social Science on a two year rotation. By creating a wiki for each of the quests, it could provide a starting point for the students that work on it the following time. I think this would be great for both intermediate students, but also teachers. As we all teach the same unit, we would be able to pool everything we do and aid each other to teach the unit more effectively the next time.

I have learnt a lot through Richardsons article, and look forward to learning more. The more I'm reading, the more I'm starting to envision how a wiki would work within my Year 7 classroom.