Do your students work on collaborative projects? If so, wikis are useful tools for you and your students. A wiki is a website created by a group of people. Wikis make it easier for people to work together on a project--even if they are in different locations or can’t all get together at the same time outside of class.
Wiki ideas . . .
- Vocabulary Building: Students can design a website as a class that defines important terms used in science or social studies. They can scan and include their own illustrations or link to relevant websites such as http://www.nasa.gov/, http://www.mnh.si.edu/, http://earthtrends.wri.org/index.php, and https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ to enrich their interactive vocabulary site.
- Debate: Do your students need practice supporting their ideas with evidence from their reading or research? They can convince each other of their positionss using data, words, pictures, and sound! You can have a page for each side of the debate on your wiki, and students can add evidence to their side.
- Writing: Collaborative storytelling can be a fun way to bring in reluctant writers. Sometimes the blank page seems less daunting if the whole story isn’t one person’s responsibility. Alleviate writer’s block with this mind-stretching activity. Still stuck? Give them a first sentence or paragraph to get them going.
- Study Time: “I can’t find my study guide.” It’s now on a wiki accessible from any computer--and the students create it together! As one last formative assessment before the summative assessment, let students create the study guide. Divide students into groups and give each group a section to cover and a wiki page on which to record. As the teacher, you can screen the posts, and incorrect posts can be sent back to the drawing board through a discussion with the authoring group. If a group seems lost, reteaching can be done, and that group can try their post after a little more reviewing.
- Timelines: Each student can be responsible for a chunk of the timeline for the time period being studied.
- Fundraisers and Events: Yes--that’s what I said. Do you sponsor a club or sport? Is planning the event/fundraiser always a hassle? Let students help brainstorm ideas with you on a wiki. (Just make sure they know that you get the final veto ahead of time!)
- “Pen Pals”: Do you communicate with another school that is far away? If not, maybe now is a good time to start such a project! It’s never been easier for students across town, the country, or even the world to work together on a project. The possibilities are endless! Want to start small before you think big? Have students in different classes but in the same school collaborate first. (Just make sure that you have “talked” in some manner with the adult on the other end so expectations for the project are mutual ahead of time.)
Notes on implementation . . .
- Collaboration: As with any collaborative work, you may need to give students some guidelines for working together--especially on the Web. Remind them not to post anything they wouldn’t say in person.
- Backup: “But I posted it there last night!” Avoid this by having students compose in a word processing program (such as Microsoft Word or Pages). They can save their post as a document that they also email to you after they post. If all goes well, those emails are easily deleted. If all does not go well, then there is a backup plan with no excuses.
- Remember to get parental and administrative permission before starting a wiki!
- Management Tip: Wikispaces keeps a record automatically of who altered a page. This is helpful if something inappropriate (or incorrect) is posted. It is also helpful if students know this from the beginning.
(This is not an exhaustive list. If you know someone who uses a different tool, you might want to use the same one so that you have a local “go to” person.)
Equipment/software needed . . .
- computer with Internet connection
I would encourage you to read the post entitled “Getting started . . .” before diving in.
If you have had success with a lesson involving a wiki, please share your pearls of wisdom through a comment to this post!
Angela CMG
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