At the beginning of this section of the class, I was mystified as to how I would use wikis in my class. Since the focus of chemistry isn't really writing -- at least not mostly -- it seemed like a stretch to imagine solid wiki use in my classroom. Reading about wikis changed my mind a bit. I enjoyed visiting the sites and seeing how other teachers are using them in classes. It does seem like there are many, many interesting blog options and wikis are more standard (maybe they're better when they're not free?).
As part of our assignment tonight, I added to an entry in wikipedia and I thought this was really creepy. Our teacher asked us to choose a topic we knew a lot about and change an entry. WHHHHHAAAAAAT?! Immediately, I felt I knew nothing about everything. In the end, I couldn't really bear to add a sentence. Instead, I added a link from the Ohio High School Speech League entry to the ohssl website. I liked looking at the history and seeing that I had done it!
I thought creating a wiki was relatively easy. It wasn't exactly as intuitive as creating the blog, but, overall, it wasn't difficult. My wiki can be found at http://books4brainiacs.pbworks.com/. I hope other people will contribute to this wiki! I can easily think of lots of ways that adults could use these to collaborate. Neat!
One way I am strongly considering using a wiki in my classroom is for summarizing material. I emphasize the importance of Cornell notes when I lecture and I try to convince students to leave space at the bottom of the page to write a summary of each page of notes. Of course, no one does this -- it's extra work, it's not assigned, and it's contrary to what they've done for the first 10 years of their schooling. Unfortunately, they often miss easy multiple choice questions because they haven't reviewed basic concepts from the unit. This year I think I may have a wiki summary page. Students could create the summaries as we work through units or at the end. Everyone could use them to study for tests. As a group, they would be creating a summary of the class. This would help them with NETS-S standard 2 that states that students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. Hopefully, they will also be working on standard 5 that says students advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology and exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
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