Wikis

Michelle Johnson and Nancy Cooley (2001) point out that while most educators have been introduced to technology as adults, our students have always been exposed to technology; therefore, they have had more time to practice and experiment with technology. Students come to school with the expectation that their learning will have some connection with the real world. Students these days are comfortable with technology. Technology will be a part of any job our students hold. Education these days must include technology. Wikis are a great way to incorporate simple technology in the classroom.

Hedron (2008) points out that wikis require very little technological knowledge to create. The creator can create what looks like a web page without knowledge of coding that would be needed to create a typical web page. It seems like the perfect place to start to try to incorporate technology in the classroom. However, in the article Using Wiki Technology to support student engagement: lessons from the trenches, Melissa Cole (2008) details a failed project in a higher education setting in which students were encouraged to post to a wiki. Even though Cole claims that weekly suggestions were given to show how students can post to the wiki, after five weeks, not a single student had posted anything. When questioned about this, a few students commented that they did not want to be "first" while there were many other reasons listed. Most were confused about what to do; many others listed time constraints or a simple lack of interest. Cole offered some explanations for the failure. A wiki component simply can't be added; the course content should revolve around it. It needs to be assessed somehow; otherwise, students may not see the value and may not participate as expected. Lastly, students should receive more guidance about how to participate.

I personally have had some experiences with wikis - mostly good. I created a wiki for my middle and high school book clubs, and the experiences have been very different. My original intention was to use the wiki for announcements for book club and a forum for book reviews and discussions. In a meeting, students created accounts, logged on, and became members. I created bookmarks to remind students how to log on. My high school students barely used it. My middle school students on the other hand, became avid users. They created book reviews and took part in active discussions about books they were reading. Some even created their own pages in which they listed favorite books or attempted to create collaborative pages with the other members of the club. I am not sure what the difference was except that most high school students have more on their plate than middle school students; therefore, it became much less important. My middle school students seemed to enjoy the social aspect of interacting with each other (and me) on the web.

I also saw a teacher candidate use a wiki as an online teaching portfolio. The end result was impressive. There are so many gadgets and widgets or whatever you call them out there that one can create a pretty professional document with very little technical knowledge.

Hedron (2008) pointed out that while wikis are great collaborative tools, the result can be a little messy. One creating a wiki can use the web to find several ways to enhance it.

www.gettingtrickywithwikis.wikispaces.com is a great site that offers suggestions on how to make your wiki stand out from the rest.

http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/wikiideas1.cfm offers ideas for teachers about how to get started using wikis in the classroom.

A quick search of the web will yield countless widgets for embedding into your wiki.

I will never be a fan of using technology purely for technology's sake, but there are situations where a wiki is a perfect tool.

Cole, M. (2009, January). Using wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches. Computers & Education 52(1), 141-146. Retrieved September 24, 2009, doi: 10.1016/jcompedu.2008.07.003.

Hedron, J. (2008). RSS for educators: Blogs, newsfeeds, podcasts, and wikis in the classroom. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

Johnson, M. & Cooley N. (2001). What we know about: Supporting new models of teaching and learning through technology. Arlington, VA: Educational Research Service.