What's a wiki? Information about meaning of wiki and how to use wiki

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What's a wiki? Information about meaning of wiki and how to use wiki

What's a wiki?

A wiki is a web site that lets any visitor become a participant: you can create or edit the actual site contents without any special technical knowledge or tools. All you need is a computer with an Internet connection. A wiki is continuously “under revision.” It is a living collaboration whose purpose is the sharing of the creative process and product by many. One famous example is Wiki-pedia, an online encyclopedia with no “authors” but millions of contributors and editors. The word "wiki" comes from Hawaiian language, meaning "quick" or "fast."

Who uses wikis?
Wikis are used in the “real world” (outside of K-12 schools) by people collaborating on projects or trying to share things online, such as family information and photos, technical information from users of a product, data from a research and development project, wine expertise, travel journals from abroad, club or specialty information, or projects like collaborative cookbooks.

Sometimes they are used for free expression, such as a youth group online graffiti space. College and university courses seem to be using wikis far more than the K-12 community right now. In K-12 education, wikis are being used by educators to conduct or follow-up after professional development workshops or as a communication tool with parents. The greatest potential, however, lies in student participation in the ongoing creation and evolution of the wiki.

What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and multimedia content in the form of “posts” (starting point entries) and “comments” (responses to the posts). While commenting, and even posting, are open to the members of the blog or the general public, no one is able to change a comment or post made by another. The usual format is post-comment-comment-comment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are often the vehicle of choice to express individual opinions.

A wiki has a far more open structure and allows others to change what one person has written. This openness may trump individual opinion with group consensus.

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

Study guides made by student groups for themselves and peers: each group prepares the guide for one aspect of the unit or responsibility rotates: one unit guide per semester.
Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use, contributed by students (ongoing throughout the year).
The wiki as the organizational and intellectual epicenter of your class. Wiki all assignments, projects, collaboration, rubrics, etc.
Products of research projects, especially collaborative group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc. Remember that the products do not have to be simply writing. They can include computer files, images, videos, etc. Creating an organizational structure for the content is an important part if the project.
An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the non-school world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism, entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review information for important concepts throughout the year, prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam. Students add to it throughout the year and even from year to year.
An “everything I needed to know I learned in Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over into the “real world.” For example, a student might write about actually using a simple algebraic equation to figure out dimensions for cutting lumber or foam core for a display or write about ways that her friend shows tragic hubris and is heading toward a fall.
A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study: Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see to concepts learned before they left: mammals I saw on the way to Disney, geometric shapes in the Magic Kingdom, the most cost-effective lunches while traveling, etc. Remember: hotels usually have Internet access. Make the world a part of your classroom!
An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions) wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,” the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic. Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the teacher. This would also depend on whether you have consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many schools do not have.

Wiki ideas for younger students (elementary):

An annotated virtual library: listings and commentary on independent reading students have done throughout the year
Collaborative book reviews or author studies
An elementary class “encyclopedia” on a special topic, such as explorers or state history – to be continued and added to each year!
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades
A travelogue from a field trip or NON- field trip that the class would have liked to take as A culmination of a unit of study: Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific or governmental processes: how a bill becomes a law, how mountains form, etc.
A wiki “fan club” for you favorite author(s).
Family Twaditionwiki- elementary students share their family’s ways of preparing Thanksgiving dinner or celebrating birthdays (anonymously, of course) and compare them to practices in other cultures they read and learn about.
A Where is Wanda wiki: a wiki version of the ever-favorite Flat Stanley project. Have each Wanda host post on the wiki, including the picture they take with Wanda during her visit. Even better: keep an ongoing Google Earth placemarker file to add geographic visuals to Wanda’s wonderful wanderings as a link in the wiki. WOW! Where in the world IS Wiki Wanda?

Wiki ideas for math:

A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked wiki”?)
A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs (a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different approaches to the same problem!
Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate places where they actually used math to solve a problem.
Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial or converting a decimal to a fraction.
Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as many ways possible: as graphics to count, as mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for example.

Wiki ideas for science:

A student- made glossary of scientific terms with illustrations and definitions added by the class (using original digital photos or those from other online Creative Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate pages with detailed information would allow the main glossary list to remain reasonably short.
A taxonomy of living things with information about each branch as you study Biology over a full year.
Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a chemistry class.
Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in local streams, weather observations from across your state, or bird counts during migratory season. Collaborate with other schools.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific processes: how mountains form, etc.
A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military. Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Wiki ideas for language arts:

A continuing story in which your class adds sentence using new vocabulary words and writes and adventure story in collaboration with the entire class. They will NEVER forget the meaning of the words as they read and re-read their story each time they visit to add. The story can be a single version or branch off into multiple versions and endings.
A collection of mythological allusions found in “real life” while studying Greek/Roman mythology: Ex. Mercury cars- why are they so named?
An online writer’s workshop or poetry workshop with suggested revisions from classmates. Start with drafts and collaborate. Make sure students use the notes tab to explain why they make changes.
Summary and discussion of a scene of a play, a poem, or even chapter by chapter of a novel, with groups taking responsibility for different portions
Literary analysis of actual text on the wiki- with links to explanations of literary devices, a glossary to explain vocabulary, etc. Try it with a scene from Shakespeare or a sonnet! Each student or group could be responsible for a portion, then ALL can edit and revise to improve the collaborative project. You will be amazed how much they will find and argue.
Collaborative book reviews or author studies
Creative projects, such as a script for a Shakespeare scene reset in the 21st century
A travel brochure wiki- use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.
Character resume wiki: have literature classes create a resume wikis for characters in a novel or play you are reading. Both creativity and documented evidence from the literature are required (use notes to indicate the evidence from the text).

Wiki ideas for other subjects:

A virtual art gallery with ongoing criticism and responses regarding artwork found online or originals from your art classroom (a cwitiqwiki).
A catalog of musical styles or musical instruments.
Collections of recipes for a family and consumer science or world language class.
A collaborative project with speakers of a foreign language and in another location: A day in the life of an American/Japanese/French/German/Mexican family. (This one would require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A movie review wiki for teens hoping to find the best date flick? (a Flickr?).
A humor study wiki for gifted students trying to learn the fine art of spoof and satire, including visual as well as verbal.
Collections/montages of examples of an abstract concept, such as “surrealism”- why do you can this surrealist?- explain/refute.
An orientation wiki for the next students to come to your middle or high school (Everything you Need to Knowiki).
Make a nutrition wiki with ideas for ways to eat healthy at local restaurants (a nutwition wiki?).
A careers wiki. Have students interview people about their jobs and write up descriptions of different career paths. Invite the workers to add their own input and pictures, as well. Keep this wiki as part of an alumni project for your high school students investigating school-to-work options.
Buy a Car wiki- interest, financing, car dealer info, car model reviews, etc (in driver ed, math, or business class).
Consumer wiki- student articles on consumer issues and warnings, including the local mall, area businesses, even cell phone plans. This is great for middle schoolers learning about consumer rights.
Get a Job wiki- share info on good/bad places to work and why.
Let students create a “study hall” wiki for their assignments and prep for upcoming tests in your class and others
Wonderstudent Wiki: As preparation for college or job applications, have groups of students create a fictitious student-resume wiki, demonstrating good skills at “selling” one’s talents and accomplishments. Invite potential employers or college admissions officers to respond to the wikis, if possible.
A space for ESL/ELL students to tell stories of their experiences learning a new culture. Their writing skills will be the winners, and they can edit and help each other to improve. One possibility: write it like an Amelia Bedelia story (the character to takes every idiom literally, cutting up sponges to make sponge cake, etc.

Take a wiki walk through some sample wikis:

The Aristotle Experiment (High School English)
A continuing tennis ball story (elementary)
Westwood Schools Computer Science wiki (grades 8, 9, 10, integrated with a class blog)
The wiki-veteran teacher from Westwood blogs about her computer class wiki assignments and results.
First grade wiki (learning to write)
High school Online collaborative writing. Note its member schools)
A science wiki page from High School Online

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