I have to admit I had no idea what a wiki was before reading this thing. In fact, I had scrolled ahead through the things months ago and wanted to cheat and look ahead but was afraid without the previous weeks' instruction I would be lost. Then tonight I finally got to this thing, and there it was-- wiki, as in wikipedia, the website I've been trained to tell my students to avoid at all costs due to the potential for inaccuracy of added information.
After reviewing the varios wiki samples, I must say that I can see very positive uses for wikis in my teaching (although I still would steer clear of wikipedia). I like the idea of setting up a wiki for my class for a project such as their next current events assignment. They could find information about countries in SE Asia and post the facts they find along with the website they found it at. Then, after the class had posted (maybe give them a two week deadline to do so), they could write an essay about what they learned about SE Asia using the class' facts. This idea came to mind really quickly, and I bet as I continue to think of applications, more and better ones will arise.
I would love to find a wiki for the class I teach, one in which fellow seventh grade history teachers share knowledge about the different topics we teach. For example, the students often ask lots of questions about the Taj Mahal when I teach the Mughal Empire. It wuld be great to have a wiki of facts that other teachers have found interesting, educational, and documented.
I like the idea of wikis, and I think this thing has many applications to teaching!
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Hey Runner!
You're doing a great keeping up on the 23 Things. I think you have a good idea for how to use a wiki in your classroom.
I think it's also a great idea to use it as a professional development tool. Think of how we all could use it to gather examples for the different sections for WASC. Each teacher could contribute how they exemplify one particular facet in their classroom.
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