Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Wacky and Wonderful Wiki

Having never created or been a part of a Wiki before, I was unsure what to expect when I first opened up Wikispaces, and was a bit nervous. But the technology is so easy to use and so versatile, it was like have a new fun toy to play with!

Here is the short little Wiki I created on Wikispaces so I could play around and see what this new toy could do:

http://crystals-uni-wiki.wikispaces.com/

The uses of Wikis in education are endless from an assessment prospective. Every group oriented project could make use of a Wiki from a simple joint report to a project spanning over the entire class. The “Discussion” section would allow students to leave messages in regards to the Wiki development, and the whole thing could be monitored at any time of day by the teacher.

My example of using a Wiki:

Students have to create a Wiki about their town (in my example I’m using Bundaberg as it the town I live in). Through negotiation with the teacher, students select an aspect relating to the town to do in the Wiki as a page (tourist attraction, local celebrity, weather trends in the area, local history ect). By piecing together the student’s individual topics, a Wiki about Bundaberg would be created. As this would then be available for the world at large to view, students would be much more motivated make this Wiki the best it could be.

A Wiki would make a very effective technological learning tool from both the student's and the teacher's perspectives.

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