Wiki's - Lesson 6

I love working with Wiki's. I have created one for the Village Elementary and have had much success. The kids are so excited to see their work and actually try to make their work better by re-reading and editing and looking at their classmates work for mistakes. I like the idea that it is a collaborative effort by all. As I've shown other teachers and students the work we have put on, they are coming up with ideas on how they can contribute and how it will help their students for the following year. It's not just a one time deal, it's on going. Students looking at the Village Wiki next year for information can still edit what is on there. I'm sure not every shred of information has been collected on a specific topic. One of our "requirements" is having the students site their sources. We are not getting into MLA, or Chicago type of site sourcing, but we are trying to get them into the habit of giving credit to the website, person, author, book etc. that they are getting the information from. This also helps them to take a look at the source and see if it is really a reliable one or not. We have a variety of different software program entries which really helps the teachers (ones that aren't "techy") to really explore different ways to help their students present the information that is being collected. I like to think of this as Differentiated Instruction.

Wiki's can be used in so many different ways. Like blogs everyone can contribute and comments can be made. I like the fact that students can use this as another way to showcase their work. Like Terri said so often they do the research, it's graded, they bring it home and maybe it's put on the refrigerator for a while. This way it stays, it serves a purpose (other students can use it) and it can be shared with others (grandparents, aunts, uncles etc). I'm really excited about The Village Wiki and so are the students and teachers that have contributed!