Thing #17 - More wikis

I think that I will start by helping my students learn the value of Wikipedia not just the dangers. Group learning can be very productive if it is monitored and guided. Facilitator of the discussion is a valuable role I can play as a teacher.

I am also thinking of other ways to use wikis in the classroom. I'm going to read some of the other 23 things blogs to get some more ideas.

Thing #16 - Wikis

A few years ago I was working on a project for church and we used a wiki to build a set of procedures for starting a new church. We included information on all aspects of starting a church - admnistrative, financial, childcare, legal, as well as spiritual. The wiki worked great because it allowed people to work on their part of the 'manual' on their own time and from their own computers. As far as I know, the wiki is still in use. At least I hope it is. I'm still paying for it every month on editme.com.

School wikis - I think wikis could be a great tool for school. Students could collaborate on note taking, research, studying, and homework. I started a blog for our new 8th grade science curriculum this year but not everyone knew how to use RSS feeds so it didn't get used very much. I think a wiki would have been much more useful b/c we could have easily attached documents and kept track of how we were using them. Hmm. Something to think about for the rest of the year. Definitely for next year.