A few years ago I stumbled upon a website called wikispaces. As I am always open to exploring new tools on the web, I played around in the site and used it “a little” with one of my classes. I still have my wikispaces account. However, since using Moodle for facilitating an online class as well as a resource for my F2F classes, I’ve been utilizing the wiki feature of this course management software quite a bit. It really is a great way to have students come together for a common purpose, to allow each to have a say or piece of the action, and to give the students a sense of ownership in the whole process.
However, this comes with some words of wisdom. Before jumping into the wiki world, you’ll need to educate yourself in using this tool. Although it’s relatively easy, you need to have a bit of knowledge of hyperlinking and a sense of how to structure the wiki. Definitely try out a wiki, spend some time playing with the features, and even set up a practice run before turning your students loose in it. And you should have a clear purpose and guidelines for the project so that students will be able to work in a direction toward a common goal and not feel frustrated.
I’ve also just completed a wiki project in wikispaces in an online class that I am taking. As a participant in this group project, I found it challenging only because “I” like to be in control. But the whole premise of using wikis is to collaborate and share. So if you plan to use wikis in your classroom, be open and aware of the different personalities and learning styles of your students. I learned quite a bit while completing this project for my class, not only about wikis and the content we included in our project, but also about myself.
Here’s two sites to try if you are considering using wiki technology in your classroom:
wikispaces
pbwiki
Friday, November 16, 2007
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2 comments:
You made an excellent point about being familiar with the basics of a wiki and starting your students out slowly. For a first project in the classroom, one probably needs to structure the assignment fairly tightly until the students have experience with it. A team of us in our building are planning on using wikis in Moodle with our students next semester. Do you find the Moodle wikis user friendly and similar to wikispaces or are there major differences?
Moodle wikis are defintely user-friendly, but also much more simplistic than wikispaces--not many bells and whistles. Works well with high school students!
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