wikis in the classroom

Get Wiki with It!!!!!

An Introduction to Using Wikis in the Classroom

By Bill Gaskins

Special Thank sAubri Keleman

Teaching with WikisObjectives:

Introduce wikis and present Wikis as information sources Wikis as professional tools for teachers Ideas for using wikis with students

What is a Wiki? A piece of software Like a word document online A page anyone can edit

Yes but can I learn to use it?

You can learn to use a wiki in 30-60 min.

There are several free sources for wikis.

What’s important about a wiki? Collaboration Hyperlinks

Wikipedia:Wikipedia is: A free encyclopedia Multilingual Web-based Written collaboratively by volunteers

Most articles can be changed by anyone Wikipedia has more than 3,210,000 articles

Wikis as Information SourcesWhat do you know about Wikipedia?

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Wikis as Information SourcesNature magazine carried out an expert-led

investigation of Wikipedia comparing it to

Britannica.

“The exercise revealed numerous errors in

both encyclopedias, but among 42 entries

tested, the difference in accuracy was not

particularly great: the average science entry

in Wikipedia contained around four

inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.”

(Giles, 2005, 1)

Wikis as Information SourcesUniversity of Buffalo professor Alex Havelis

created 13 errors on various posts of

Wikipedia. All were fixed within a couple of

hours.

During the tsunami, Wikipedia was called

“the most comprehensive source

on the web.”

(Richardson, 2005,2)

Wikis as Information Sources

Wikipedia or Whackypedia…

Wikijunior

Wikijunior

Wikis as Professional Tools for TeachersWikis support collaborative projects by: Teachers School board members Schools

.

Wikis in Elementary and Middle SchoolsWikis in upper elementary school have beenused for collaborative writing: Class newspaper Story telling Poetry Correcting teacher samples of writing Classroom wikipedia

Other ideas for wikis: Brainstorming Group work

Buckman Arts Magnet Elementary School

Sample for First Grade

How might students use wikis? As information sources As collaborative tools for group work As an authentic reason to write and read As a way to publish and share work

Information Literacy Lessons Related to WikisKindergarten: How to type How to use a mouse How to paste a picture in a wiki ABC book

Grade three: How to edit a wiki How to add to the class wikipedia

Information Literacy Lessons Related to Wikis

Grade 7: Using wikis on a collaborative project

(A single lesson could be on respect in wikiland) Evaluating wikipedia as a resource Adding to wikijunior or wikipedia

PbWiki

PbWiki

Seedwiki

Get Wiki With ItBill Gaskins

Carvers Bay Middle School

bgaskins@gcsd.k12.sc.us

www.bloggingonthebay.org