Teach+One


 * Teach One**

I am by no means an expert at using wikis, but from my limited experience over the last couple of days, I think they could be a ton of fun in the classroom for students while still having a great benefit to their learning.

When beginning with wikis, I think the best way to start is to have students develop their own pages, just a to get a feel for how it works. They can edit the page and include a variety of elements on the page that may not be specific to a theme or the curriculum, but allow the students to gain some experience. Off the top of my head, I would have the students introduce themselves, create a link to their favorite website, embed a movie, change the page of a classmate by saying something nice about them, link to another page on the wiki, and copy and paste a poem into the page, but the font needs to have changes to it (color, size, etc).

As I begin to think about how I would use a wiki, I begin to think about mathematics and problem solving. I would likely set up my class into groups of three or four and have a different problem for each group. I would make a page on the wiki for each group and post the group question. Each student would then be responsible for contributing to the answering of the question. This could be text based or the students could physically draw pictures and scan and insert them into the wiki. The students would be working as a group to get the problem done.

As I mentioned before, I am not an expert, but I did find some links that look encouraging. Some sites that could help you to start your own wiki include:


 * [|Classroom 2.0 Wiki on Wikis] - this site looks phenomenal, it has numerous links, suggestions, wikis to check out, and it is a wiki, so you can contribute!
 * [|Wiki in a K - 12 Classroom] - this Wikipedia style wiki has suggestions for use in the K - 12 classroom including a few links and readings.
 * [|A Blog about Wikis in the Classroom]


 * Professional Development**

Perhaps my idea of PD is a little to simple, but from my own experiences, PD looks something like this:


 * 1) Go to session, get name tag, get coffee, get free pen, take a snack if there are any
 * 2) Listen to presenter, take notes
 * 3) Have lunch
 * 4) See step 2
 * 5) Go home earlier than you normally would
 * 6) Leave notes in car / bag / at home / in filing cabinet never to be looked at again (or for a long time)

I think the wiki can be a great tool for teacher PD when combined with an RSS feed. Let's say that I am doing a PD session on web 2.0 tools. One of the items we talk about is a wiki. As a facilitator, I build a wiki for all of the teachers present while they follow along creating their own wiki for their class. As we go through all of the steps, I am modeling the process. At lunch, I make links to all of the teacher wikis. I have now created a network of wikis. As the teachers continue to develop their wikis they can view the other teachers wikis and make comments and suggestions. By adding RSS feeds to each of the wikis, as there are changes, to each wiki, the teachers will see the changes. This would be a great reminder about their own wikis.


 * Pros and Cons**

In doing some reading of academic resources, I have compiled a list of pros and cons that were developed from the readings.

Pros:


 * Students feel empowered because they can express their views. (Hazari, North, and Moreland, 2009, p. 188)
 * Students feel a sense of pride and ownership in the wiki and do more to ensure accuracy of the content. (Matthew and Felvegi, 2009, p. 73)
 * Collaborative content can be created, changed and tracked easily (Hazari, et. al., p. 189; Schweder and Wissick, 2009, p. 57)
 * Contribution to a wiki can lead to in-depth understanding of course content ((Matthew and Felvegi, 2009, p. 68)
 * Contributing to a wiki is a hands on constructivist activity (Matthew and Felvegi, 2009, p. 72)
 * The collaborative aspect of the wiki caused students to have to reflect on the writings of other students in order to move along the development of the wiki. It is not enough to simply say, "I agree." The wiki forces a student to do more than simply agree which is possible to do in other forms of internet technology such as a discussion forum. (Matthew and Felvegi, 2009, p. 72)

Cons:


 * There is a certain level of computer skills that is required to contribute to a wiki. (Matthew and Felvegi, 2009, p. 71)
 * Organization is a key to developing a wiki. If information is simply added to the bottom of the information that already exists, the wiki can become disorganized and confusing. (Matthew and Felvegi, 2009, p. 72)


 * Summary**

Wikis can be highly effective and encouraging to students. The design of the wiki lends itself to collaborative activities occurring and this will lead to better learning by students. There are cons to wiki technology. The good thing about the cons is that they can be fixed. Computer and technology skills can be taught and teachers should ensure that their students are fully aware of how the wiki-software works. When beginning the wiki, teachers should take an active role in the wiki so that the teacher can model the type of discussion and moderation that should occur. This should lead to better learning experiences for everyone.