Supercool School: The Wacky Ways of the Wiki

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August 23, 2008

The Wacky Ways of the Wiki

SPEAKER: Jeff Utecht from www.thethinkingstick.com

NOTE: Jeff is based in Thailand (which is 16 hours time difference to California which made coordination a bit challenging :) He asked us to move his post to 22.00 California, but we couldn't get that change in in time. So here is a sneak preview of the post - Jeff will be available at 22.00 PST to jump in the disussion and answer questions. I (Max) am happy to moderate in the mean time.

Wiki is a Hawaiian word meaning “Quick”; quick to create, quick to edit, and quick to become useful in the classroom. These easy to edit web pages have started to change education over the past couple of years. Educators around the world are finding new ways to use wikis in and out of the classroom. What I find amazing is how educators have been able to take the simple design and layout of wikis and mold them into a multitude of different website designs. Below I review some of the wacky ways that educators around the world have used wikis. My hope is that you will become inspired or at least think about the different ways in which a wiki might be able to effect your classroom, your school, or your community.

http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/ An IB Economics wiki ran by Jason Welker and the students in his class won two different awards last year. Welker’s Wikinomics won the Edublog Awards for best Wiki and the Golden Paint Can Awards from Wetpaint.com in the category of Education 2.0. Students in Jason’s IB Economics class create the wiki each year as a study guide for what they are learning. One of my favorite places to visit on the wiki is the Discussion Forums where you can read true learning in action. The wiki allows for students to debate on many topics: what should go on a wiki page, what is fact and what is perception about economics, etc. Jason is just getting the wiki going for the 08-09 school year so check back often to have a look as students create the space for this new school year.

http://iisorkr.wetpaint.com/ The Indianhead International School uses a wiki as their main school website. They also have each student creating their own wiki as a website for themselves. Talk about a school into wikis. What I like is that each student creates his/her own wiki and the content put there belongs to that student and that student is responsible for the content put on the site. What a great way to start students thinking about digital management and creating information on the web. Students learn early about their digital footprint and learn how to control information that belongs to them.

http://challenge-global.wikispaces.com/ An 8th grade wiki that basically is wikis within wikis. Fay Leong from Shanghai American School created the wiki as part of a Global Issues Project at her school. If you scroll down, on the left hand side you will find a link to each student group and the group’s wiki. Each group created a mini-wiki within the site as a place to host their information. Some students even went out and created their own wikis and a year later are still updating the content found on them. The above examples are just a few ways that wikis can be used. Hopefully you find a way that they can be used in your classroom as well. Wiki companies have started focusing on education and have customized their programs for use with students. There are three free wiki services that most educators use.

Wetpaint.com started offering ad-free wiki sites for educators in November of 2007. The easy edit and layout of Wetpaint wikis draw the attraction of many educators. Wetpaint has created a template that educators can simply click on and it will create a classroom site complete with pages for them to use. Their embedded widgets allow educators to search for such things as YouTube videos and with one click embed them into the wiki site. Wetpaint has even created a community wiki for educators to work together around their Wetpaint issues.

Wikispaces Wikispaces became very popular among educators when in January 2006 they released their 100,000 wikis for education site. Wikispaces has almost reached their 100,000 educational wiki goal offering ad free wikis for educators. Wikispaces is home to many educational wiki projects, including one of the most talked about wiki collaborations, the Flat Classroom Project by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. Wikispaces’ simple design and format make it an easy place to start creating your first wiki. The sidebar can be completely customized with a little html knowledge to display different pages of the site or embed an html widget.

PBwiki PBwiki also offers ad-free wikis for education. I personally have not used PBwiki due to the simple fact that for the past three years, while living in China, their site was blocked. I’ve heard great reviews from other educational users who find the site quick loading and easy to navigate. The above wiki platforms all have different features and are set up in different ways. Take some time to explore each one and think about how you want to use the wiki. Only after thinking about how you want your wiki to work should you choose a platform that can support your efforts. It’s a wacky wiki world out there and with so many uses, only your own creativity will hold you back on how to use one in your classroom or school. Take some time to browse the wikis mentioned in this post and feel free to leave a comment pointing to other great wiki examples and their use in education.

Posted at 03:02 PM in EduBlogger Event08 | Permalink

Comments

Hey, Jeff. Thank you for the mention.

Many say that the term "wiki" itself puts people off and that we should use other terms like "collaborative environment" or "easy to edit web page."

What do you say to those who oppose this proliferation of terminology such as "wiki" and "blog" into education?

Posted by: Vicki Davis | August 23, 2008 at 03:04 PM

I really like your point regardin the Indianhead Int. School: "What a great way to start students thinking about digital management and creating information on the web. Students learn early about their digital footprint and learn how to control information that belongs to them."

Digital natives are of course much more acustomed to swimm in cyberspace, but many don't learn it in with the choaching/scafforlding of educators and i think that is quite important. I see educating for digital (social) literacy as a key mission to be integrated in our educational system!
I have been fortunate to work with Howard Rheingold to develop an Social Media Collaboratory and a course designed to train learners in and inquire about social life online (virtual communities & social media usage)

check out the syllabus @ http://socialmediaclassroom.com/vircom08/wiki/texts

and a little video @ http://blip.tv/file/1186946

we will release the classroom as super easy install and the materials as Open Educational Resource. Contact me @ [email protected] if you want to be notified when we start the community of practice and let the baby loose

Posted by: Max | August 23, 2008 at 03:39 PM

Now what happens for the next generation of students?

• Do they have to start all over again -or-
• Continue from where the previous group left.

My natural response would be to continue, but after a couple of generations, wouldn't the wiki be in a point in which it can't be enriched that much and it would turn itself into a reference point only ?

Posted by: .hj barraza | August 23, 2008 at 06:02 PM

@.hj Well that is the beauty of Open Source Education, no?

When a wiki reaches the point where a topic seems completely covered, is it really? And will it be next month? Will there not be any new information?

Even then, if successful, it serves as a way for one set of students to begin learning and another to review and expand.

Posted by: Gabriel Kent | August 23, 2008 at 08:22 PM

@Vicki
We need to get over the name change. It's not the name it's the tool. It's not the tool...it's the learning it allows. People spend to much time with the name of a piece of software. If it was named something else I would still use it for what it does, not because of what it's named. A wiki is so versatile that calling it something like "collaborative environment" would lead one to believe that you have to use it that way. When if you wanted to you could use it as just a plan website. You don't have to allow collaboration, but the function is there if you want it.

@barraza
It depends on the teacher. I know some teachers that delete the wiki and start fresh every year while others allow each new class to add the existing body of knowledge. It's up to the teacher and who's to say one way is right or wrong. I see benefits in both and it does depend on the topic as well. A topic like current events would be much easier to continue to add information to then say Algebra.

Posted by: Jeff Utecht | August 24, 2008 at 07:43 AM

Hello.
If your backup freezes, stutters, skips, or has some pixelation, it is more than likely due to poor quality media being used. Cheap media is poorly manufactured around the edge of the disc, hence the reason why it mostly skips or freezes from the middle toward the end of the movie. The two main things to consider first are:1. Is it cheap media that you are using? (ie. some off brand you bought at a local computer store/fair, even a store like Circuit City or Best Buy sells cheap low quality media.)2. How fast are you burning? - Burn no faster than 4X, might have to go down to 2X with really cheap media.Also, are you using adhesive labels on your back ups? If so, try removing the labels (if you can) and playing them again. Go here for more info on why not to use labels. - http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28604You can go here for some other possible solutions: http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44912Also try lowering outcome the Target DVD size.Open DVD Shrink. Click Edit, then Preferences. On the first tab at the top in the drop down box, change it from DVD-5 (4.7GB) to Custom and enter a number of 4200MB (4464MB is burning to the edge of the disc, you want to stay away from the edge as the edge of cheap media (disc's) are poorly manufactured). Screen Shot Below:

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