Wikis McCook Inservice October 9, 2009 ESA2

What is a wiki?

Safety and Privacy Create and adhere to school technology policy Review the ENTIRE policy with staff, students, and parents Teach ethical and legal behavior for social software use

Instructional Purpose Why are you choosing to send students to a website? ◦Efficiency ◦Enriching ◦Extending

Wikipedia – what an inspiring project!

2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake 76 word post on Wikipedia appeared 9 hours after the earthquake 24 hours later: 400 edits & 3000 words 48 hours later: 1200 edits & 6500 words 6 months later: 7000 edits & 7200 words The power of the collective human knowledge!

If anyone can change it, how can it be reliable? There are vastly more editors who want to make it right than those who want to make it wrong Alex Halavais experiment: 13 errors on various posts were all corrected within 2 hours (Halavais, 2004). Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, has called Wikipedia one of the most accurate encyclopedias in the world (

Safety Issues – what about vandalism? Each page on a Wiki has a “history” tab Easily revert back to a previous page version You may want to monitor wiki entries as a group (Wikipedia) Giving students editorial control can instill a sense of responsibility and ownership Wiki projects typically work best when teachers let students manage the content on the site Some wiki sites feature password & login systems – edits may be restricted to “members only”

Why Wikis? Collaborative authoring tool (21 st century skills) Web based, can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection (web 2.0) May be student directed or teacher directed Peer editing and writing Eportfolios

The pedagogy of Wikis Students publish content, develop collaborative skills Students have to read critically to find areas where information is missing or disorganized Students negotiate with others to agree on correctness, meaning, relevance, and more Student begin to teach each other!

The Wiki Revolution Wikirecipes wikitravel wiktionary wikinews wikispecies wikiquotes And on, and on, and on

Collaboration Edutopia Video Even though the writing is not their own, they have to take it as their own because they have the ability to edit and make it better – this is a huge shift.

Wikis in the Classroom Online texts for curriculum Resource to showcase best practices Use amongst teachers or district to share information Students create their own wikipedia (future classes may edit) A multicultural cookbook

To Blog or To Wiki? Writing Process: Blog ◦Reflective ◦Personal ◦Can be responded to by others Collaborative Writing: Wiki ◦Peer Review ◦Teams or Groups ◦Changes are tracked

How might you use a Wiki? Discuss with a partner some ideas you have for using a Wiki in your classroom

Experts recommend several steps to follow when using wikis, including: From : Education Week’s Digital Digest September articles/2007/09/12/02wiki. h01.html 5. Especially when using wikis with students, take steps to prevent users from posting personal information that would reveal their identities. 1. Make use of the feature that alerts a wiki manager that changes have been made to the wiki. Check regularly to see what changes have been made and by whom. 2. Determine whether your wiki should be accessible to the public or be limited to a defined group. 3. Be aware of copyright and licensing issues when posting other people’s work. 4. Emphasize “digital professionalism” to the community that can add content to, edit, or otherwise revise your wiki to remind users that it is a document many other people will see. Talk about and make clear what is, and is not, acceptable on the wiki.

The Wiki Prayer Please, grant me the serenity to accept the pages I cannot edit, The courage to edit the pages I can, And the wisdom to know the difference