On the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching Wiki, it is pointed out that wikis help to change students from "consumers of knowledge to creators of knowledge." What an incredible statement. As teachers we strive to help our students internalize knowledge and make it their own. We do not want students who can simply recall facts, but students who take the knowledge taught and run with it. Wikis are a great tool to help students do just that. I also love the collaborative nature of wikis. Students being able to brainstorm and collaborate on projects together adds another dimension in the learning process. I truly love the possibilities of wikis in the classroom.
Now while the ideals of wikis are great, there is certainly the practical aspect to consider. Luckily there are several sites available for wiki newbies to help them get started. Guides like Google Sites and wikispaces make it much easier to get started. For beginners, it will take time and effort and quite a bit of planning to get started.
Possible wiki uses in a media center or classroom:
- collaborative research project
- a collection of important links and information for a class, school, or school system
- student portfolios
- Student Book Recommendations
- Author Studies
- class projects
I totally understand your perspective about Wikis. My own experience with Wikis was very limited prior to taking classes at UWG. All I knew about was Wikipedia, which, by the way, seems to have a rather negative reputation in schools. It wasn’t until last year that I actually learned just how a Wiki works. Although it isn’t the easiest way to collaborate, it does have its uses. Personally, I would much rather create a Weebly than a Wiki. I do agree with you that there are quite a few advantages to using a Wiki, the most important being that you can work with a group of people to create one thing. I did find that very handy but it was a bit unwieldy and not always user friendly. The other problem I had was that sometimes people would make changes to the pages that I didn’t agree with or they made modifications that skewed the page formatting. That can be quite frustrating.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think I did have a good experience with Wikis and I do see that there is definitely a use for them in a school library media program. Students could do collaborative research projects very similar to those we’ve done for some of our classes here at UWG. I know our students would love to be able to go home, log on and show their parents that they’ve actually been part of the creation of something that will “live” on the internet.
Honestly, wikis are still a mystery to me. I know how to use one that is already set up, but haven't yet set one up myself. Guess I need to be learning soon because your post is definitely an eye opener to the uses of wikis. The possible uses you listed are very good and could be useful in schools. I agree with you that they are a bit time consuming to learn and to use. I am on Judith's side when she says she'd rather do a Weebly than a wiki!!! But ultimately, student's educational enhancement is the main idea as you mentioned, so we media specialists better get prepared to teach kids every aspect of technological learning!
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