Educational Wiki Use

Many people have heard of www.wikipedia.com, and they know that it is a website that has its users modifying it.  The question I am faced with is how can I apply this into my classroom?  Recently I signed up for a wiki to find out.

The first thing I did was go to www.wikispaces.com.  Signing up was easier then I first thought.  They did not ask for as much information as other websites have asked for.  Once signed in it was pretty easy to set up the pages.  Overall set up was easy.

The next step is to figure out how to use this in my classroom.  I am not sure that I would feel comfortable allowing my students to edit pages in the true spirit of a wiki.  I have already set up a blog site for them and I think that anything I can do on the wiki I can do on the blog site.  I also don’t like how the wiki is open to the public to view.  In this world we have a duty to protect our students.  They do have a pay for option that would require someone to sign in like my blog site but that costs money and with today’s budget cutting I probably won’t be getting the money anytime soon for a project like that.

If I were to set up a wiki for my class I would imagine that I’d use it for collaborative work.  I have learned this week through my EME 5050 class that students need to be active learners.  By providing a place for them to be active this feeds the need.  Students can do projects on the wiki like digital stories.  One student could provide the pictures, another could do the voiceover, and a third could put all the pieces together.  By having all the students actively working they will learn more.

I do see that wiki’s have their place and I will make an attempt at using them but I will be very careful about the security of my students in the process.