Wikis

Week 7:  Thing 16  Learning About Wikis

Wikis are a great tool, especially if you would like your students to be able to work collaboratively on a project.  For the parents in my classroom, I maintain a Wetpaint Wiki that I primarily use for embedding videos and my Google Docs calendar.  Now that I know about Vimeo, however, I will eventually give up the wiki as a communication tool.  I haven't tried to use a wiki as a collaborative web site with my second - graders, but now that I know how technologically advanced they are (through weekly trips to the computer lab), I may give it a shot.  Last year, I used a wiki for information sharing for our Christmas luncheon, and I think that it was helpful to our students and faculty.  The best thing about a wiki is that it allows everyone to view information, to edit it, and to create a project comprised of multiple minds.  I read Wikipedia regularly and am grateful to the contributors who took the time to add their knowledge to the site's myriad subjects.  I also think about the poor encyclopedia sales people out there who need to find a new job.  My set of encyclopedias from 1983 are still crispy and new - except for certain sections (dogs for example) - but they can't hold a candle to the information on-line.  Ahhh . . . progress.