About+Wikis

=About Wikis=

Okay so you are literally or should I say virtually standing in it!! This is a wiki. It comes from the Hawaiin term meaning quick quick. So in fact it is a very quick and easy way to create a website. Having said this it does have limitations in that sometimes the editing tool does not behave as you know it should. (this is mainly to do with formatting aspects - you set your preference to Heading 1 and no matter what you do it does not want to display the text as a heading!)

BUT it is still a fantastic tool. It is one of the easiest Web2.0 tools that teachers can use.

Now I am not a total purest so really you can use the wiki whenever you want your students to "create" quick and easy websites. This is its simplest form and means that the technology does not stand in your way. BUT you need to keep in mind that if you use a wiki in this way, the students will no doubt do a quick cut and paste from the web. Think about it - you may not have asked them to do anything more than this. For your class wiki to be truly successful, you really need to set it up so that you are challenging the students to go deeper into the topic to develop a true understanding of the issues and content involved in their work. So from a purest stance - the **__TRUE power of the wiki is in Collaborative Knowledge construction.__**

So following are some ideas of going BEYOND the cut and paste of 21st century copying!!!


 * 1) Set a **Challenging Question** in the from of a problem. ie Rather than asking students to describe and document the properties and uses of rocks ( a question my daughter had when she was in year 9 and it took her all of 10 minutes to do as there was a website that already did this), get them to decide on the materials and types of NEW statue we may want to construct outside one of our new buildings. Here they have to consider weather aesthetics as well as the properties of the rock.
 * 2) Break down the task so that each student becomes an "expert" in one section. After students have completed their own section they will be asked to edit/comment/enhance other a number of pages from other students. A simple way to get student to collaboratively create a class wiki site on the topic.
 * 3) In a class, get one student to take the notes of your lesson, then the homework task may be that the students work on the various pages to add interactive elements (embed a relevant Youtube) or add links to articles that they are found in their research on the topic or even is further questions they have about the topic.
 * 4) As a teacher, you create the shell of the wiki and make it the responsibility of the a student to "grow" the wiki again adding multimedia resources, web links, articles etc and ideas to the site.

Remember as we move to a more student centred approach fellow students may be their biggest resource BUT this does not remove the **role of the teacher but enhances it as you will need to guide** and encourage students to become more collaborative (in a meaningful way - not just that you can copy my work) way.

A note about Critical Thinking and Digital Literacy
Often the first reactions of many who become exposed to wikis is that they say " but it is NOT valid information". In many many ways they are right. But this is where as a teacher you have to encourage students to critically analyse who has put up the information? Are they from a reputable source? Why shoud this person be taken as a "good resource" Have they (the wiki writer) or you (the student) double checked any of the information to gauge the reliability of the source. In the digital age these are essential skills we need to teach and revisit often with our students.

If you are unsure how to do this I am sure the Resource Centre will be happy to work with you to develop work with your classes in this area.

It may be interesting to note, that a few years ago there was a comparison made between [|Encyclopaedia Britannica Online] (which is the electronic version of the Encyclopaedia and available by subscription) and Wikipedia ( a social encyclopaedia created by those who have a passion for the various topics) the investigators found 2 errors in BOTH resources.