Wikis in Education

There are so many possible ways to use wikis in education. As I mentioned in my last post, my school system uses Wikispaces. Any educator that wants a wiki has to fill out the application as well as the appropriate form based on whom you plan to use the wiki with (staff, students). By having the wiki you must abide by our county’s Acceptable Use Policy. All spaces are private which means only approved users will be able to read and edit the wiki. You can be part of more than one wiki. For example I am part of my school’s wiki, the technology teacher wiki (county-wide), and I have a wikispace for use with my students.

Once you have your wikispace you need to set it up. You can create multiple pages- one per subject, topic, class, etc. Linking within the wiki is easy! Here is an example wiki I created for my staff- Our Staff Directory. Notice the links on the sides that take you to different pages. I created tables (a template) where information and a picture would be inserted. The staff can edit/enter their own information.
When using wikis with students you do need to go over rules- only posting first name and last initial, appropriate language, copyright laws, etc. You will also need to go over how to access the wikispace- their username and password. Making cards with this information makes it easy or having a sheet with everyone’s log in information is another way.

Tips for Success:

- Only one person can edit at one time
- To see changes be sure to refresh your page on a frequent basis
- Save often
- When using with students, classroom management is the key
- If the wiki has more than one page, having the directions for the assignment on each page is helpful

Last year we created a wikispace to use with our 4th and 5th graders to do a culminating Thank You project. Students had to choose two teachers that made an impact on them through the past year and leave them a message on that particular teacher’s page (see links on left). They loved it!Other ways to use wikis:

Administrative & Staff Uses: handbooks, school improvement plans, professional development day schedules (where people can sign up for sessions), sharing websites, lesson plans, and intervention program information
Instructional Uses: Writers’ Workshop, teacher web page, collaborative projects

The bottom line- when using a wiki to collaborate, the possibilities are endless!