Wikis

I have limited experience with wikis, so decided to explore them as an educational tool. Since I teach college courses relating to education, and also teach in the public schools, I am interested in the use of wikis in a range of educational settings.

I teach a variety of online education courses at the graduate and undergraduate level, as well as courses for veteran teachers. I use Blackboard as a platform for most courses. My goal is to facilitate as much interaction as possible between course participants. I have all assignments posted into Discussion Board, which is a forum that allows students to post comments in threads. Each assignment is a thread, so that everyone reads and provides feedback to assignments (based on site experiences or research). This also allows everyone to gain knowledge and shared experiences from each other throughout the course. Discussion questions are also used to guide learning. So my main question is to discover how wikis can increase interactivity in additional ways.

I looked up the site that we use in this course at http://pbwiki.com and found out that 250,000 educators are using this site! There must be something to it. What I discovered is that wikis are easy to create and use, which make them appealing right up front. They are also accessible to anyone who has an internet connection and do not require added software or technical knowledge to use. (Even Blackboard takes longer to figure out.) The main advantage of using a wiki as an alternative to discussion boards/forums, is the ability for participants to add content and edit the same document. I can see many applications for using wikis for collaborative projects, where students work together to explore a topic and add content from individual research and experiences within a course wiki.

Established wikis are also full of possible course assignments. There are many topics in Wikipedia that need verifying. Students could choose an education topic and research to add content to Wikipedia or other education wikis.  There are some pages that are labeled needing verification or reliable sources. Again, this could be a project students take on to substantiate a page that has been started by someone else. Students could also rate entries to educational topics with the rating criteria provided in Wikipedia (accuracy, neutrality, completeness, and style) or one that is created by students themselves. As they search, students can look for articles that are rated with the bronze star and examine the content. Under the Challenges section, there may be educational topics that students can tackle for course projects, as well. There is also a section in Wikipedia under collaborative projects. This is an opportunity to create a group project within a course that reaches to others worldwide for input and opportunity to make wider connections. What fun!

In my search, I found a site just for education wikis at http://www.classroom20.com. At this site there are many opportunities to get involved with established wikis or to create your own that will be seen by educators.

I also see many applications for students in the K-12 system. Many cities are getting into the action of generating wikis to share aspects of their area. The Davis wiki at http://daviswiki.org is very successful and have established Wiki Spot, a nonprofit site to help other communities establish a wiki. (see article: Wiki as Legitimate Research Sources, Suzanne Bell, Nov./Dec. 2008, http://www.onlinemag.net)

 Students could contribute or start a community wiki, adding content as they learn more about where they live. I can also see other applications for school wikis as a way to communicate to parents and the community about what is happening in school. A wiki has an advantage over a web site, in that everyone can add content and it is not limited to a web master. Groups of students could also work collaboratively on papers and projects in a similar way as described with college classes. 

This was a worthwhile study and I am gathering more resources and ideas for wikis in my courses and teaching. I look forward to reading all the postings and interacting in this wiki as well!