Wikis

=**Wikis**=

Wikis in Plain English by Lee and Sachi LeFever media type="youtube" key="-dnL00TdmLY&hl=en&rel=0" height="355" width="425"

This is what a wiki is. Wikis are slightly different from a blog. A wiki usually has a discussion area for users to leave comments. They are not organized in as strict a structure as blogs. They are as easy to publish as a blog because they generally have a wysiwyg also. Wikis have a more interactive ability. Another user can actually edit the document. Use a wiki for groups to work together on a project. Group members can work together to add research data, type a project, or prepare a report from any computer that has Internet access.

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/163/244

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.wikiville.org.uk/index.php/Main_Page

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks_portal

A Wiki is another tool to collaborate across a distance. A wiki is a bit more versatile since anyone can edit it, so students from across a great distance can actually work on the same paper or project. A 3rd grade class in our district and another 3rd grade class in Avon, Ohio are working on writing a chapter book together. They set it up for the students in Magnolia to write the first chapter and then the Avon students write the second chapter, and so on. http://avonmagnolia.wikispaces.com/ That could be easily done though a blog with the students leaving comments for the writers to edit the chapter, or with a wiki, the students could actually edit the chapter that their counterparts wrote. The students could read their partners chapter and add a paragraph that makes an important twist in the story smoother.

Some students used wikipedia for a project to tell about the Pitot House in New Orleans, Louisiana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitot_house Some community members picked up the project and made it a part of their project to promote New Orleans.

In the Flat Classroom Project a class in Georgia and a class in Bangladesh participated in a book study of Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat. http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/ Each student was paired with a student at the far site to write a "paper" exploring some of the topics in the book. The "papers" were wikis.

An interesting project using a wiki is the Nutmeg project. This project allowed students to write guides to the books that had been nominated for the Conneticut Nutmeg Children's Book Award. Their goal for the project is displayed below.

//The goal of this project is to create an encyclopedia for the [|Nutmeg Book Award 2008] nominees. Each book will have its own page full of information related to the book. As they read the [|Nutmeg Book Award 2008] nominees, participating students are encouraged to add information, ideas, comments, opinions, pictures, maps, and anything else related to the books. Students will collaborate on the same pages, editing, enhancing and revising each other's content where they see fit.//

This same idea could be conducted in Magnolia with the Bluebonnet Book Award.

Mrs. Gustin at Williams Elementary has a wiki for students in Magnolia, Texas to tell about their community and students in Perth, Australia to tell about their community. This project never really materialized on the Perth side, but kids in Mrs. Gustin's class and other kids from Mrs. Brake's class at another Magnolia ISD elementary school put together a nice little tour of Magnolia. http://gustinspace.wikispaces.com/

A wiki would be an excellent tool for teachers who want their students to work together to learn and practice writing skills. First grade students could type their stories in the wiki. Then second grade students could edit their stories to show the first grade students how to expand and elaborate in their stories. This would demonstrate where could they add details and what words might make their stories more interesting for others to read. Students in higher grades could continue to expand these stories. What a great teaching tool for creative writing!

Wiki sites to allow you to create your own wikis.

http://www.wikispaces.com

[|Click this link is for educators ad free wikis from wikispaces.]

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