Wiki Wonders

I truly like wikis. I think that it is a very useful tool to use in the classroom. They can be the center of information between students and teachers, students and students, parents and teachers, as well as between teachers and other teachers or administrators.Wikis are perfect for collaborative activities. You could use Wikis for reflection instead of or along with blogs. They could use it as an academic notebook that they can edit as they progress through the class adding notions of knowledge.

I now understand how Wikis work and how they can be useful. Before I didn't understand the versatility that is possible when creating wikis and their pages. I like how you can send an invitations by email to users and the wiki can be private instead of being in a public forum (this may put parents as ease when the students are asked to use the wiki in my classroom or at home). Along with many others who have mentioned this, I would be nice to change the feature that only one user can be editing a page at a time. If time was of the essence, as it usually is, during the class, then this would create lag time if the group was trying to work together to generate ideas.

I plan to use Wikis when I assign group projects, maybe even during class time because they can use their group wiki to present to the class. If the class is taking a field trip or their are activities that may have parent or volunteer involvement, then I could set up a Wiki for sign-ups or for the exchange of ideas.  It also may be a good review tool. The students could log in to the Wiki and post things they would like me to review before a test or just through out the semester/unit. Other students could earn credit for helping the other students before I have a chance to respond.

Since it is not face to face, Wikis could be a nice forum for the students to share ideas without feeling intimidated or embarrassed for asking questions or having knowledge.