Wiki Activity and Reflection - An Ongoing Project

Lesson: How can you use a wiki to facilitate 21st Century learning opportunities in your classroom?

Reflection: Brainstorm ideas for how you might use a wiki in your classroom to create a meaningful project for collaboration and learning.


7/23/16
I am beginning this post as I prepare for this lesson instead of after I complete the process. I want to document my process as I go.

I think I'm going to use the Wiki to create an online glossary for students to add history, vocabulary, recipes, pictures, encyclopedia entries, maps, etc. to aid their reading of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. That was my original idea. But I think I might enhance it by mimicking the Writing Process with wikis.

I mean I will make one wiki, maybe with a mind mapping program like Padlet? that represents the Brainstorming step.

Then I could do an organizing wiki?

And an outlining wiki using Diigo?

Let's see.

8/1/16

Here is the link to my Google Sites wiki.

I am very grateful to Sarah Wagner for suggesting I skip using a Google template and for suggesting I use this video, "creating a wiki using Google Sites" as a tutorial. I first tried the Wiki template from Google and it had so many elements that I didn't need that it would have been more work to cut out the fat than just to start from scratch.

I am happy with my result, but not entirely. The Google Sites tools that are pre-programmed, such as the Lists, are not ideal for my needs but worth playing around with to improve.

Also, I accidentally deleted a paragraph of instructions and now I don't know how to get it back! I looked at Revision History and it told me when I changed the paragraph but I could not find the version that had that paragraph! Bummer! I really need to understand how to use Revision History to revert to old versions before I use this assignment with students!

By the way, I've decided to use the Writing Process ideas mentioned above in my Final Project, so all is good.

Wiki sites are fantastic to bring together collaboration tools; they are like a shared Google Doc on hyperdrive. It's perfect for a big glossary like I am creating since not every child is familiar with the same words or historical/cultural allusions. A student can use and add to the site according to her needs. Any complex text in the English classroom, from Shakespeare to Steinbeck could use annotations or footnotes -- allowing the student to decide what they need help deciphering is a kind of constructionist learning.

The Educause Review article "Wide Open Spaces Wikis Ready or Not" was the best piece I read about Wikis and the most honest about the real challenges and risks to giving up that control that teachers so often love. "In a wiki, the instructor may set the stage or initiate interactions, but the medium works most effectively when students can assert meaningful autonomy over the process." I appreciate the candor here and the soul-searching that is required of teachers to genuinely embrace the messiness of a truly democratic learning tool. "Challenging the social norms" is difficult; truly adapting a "constructionist teaching philosophy" may be even more so.