Collaborate on a Wiki

[Caroline Black]

For the second semester, I have brought in a wiki for my student leadership course. I saw another teacher in my school using a wiki in her English course, and when I saw what was happening, I had to try it too! It begins by introducing what a wiki is. I was not surprised this year that many of my students had no idea what a wiki was or what they could be used for. We did a KWL chart (what I Know, what I Want to know, and what I Learned), and the "K" columns were mostly blank. We discussed a common wiki that I was sure most students were familiar with - Wikipedia. The students were also shown some videos about what wikis are"in plain English" to get some background on collaborating using this "new" tool. We set up a class wiki of our very own:

We got through the introductions eventually, and now we are using the wiki everyday! Each student has a personal page to practice adding content and reflecting on coursework and our leadership events. This was a good way to start off and have the students get some practice. We have moved on to group cooperation... Each group (of at least 4 students) has to plan an event for our school (i.e. Thanksgiving feast, fundraisers, school spirit event etc.). Their group had to do their brainstorming/planning on a wiki page that they create. They are able to comment and edit to work together.

We stil have more work to do... I have students that seem to do the majority of the contributions and I have lurkers that read, but do not edit. We have created a wiki criteria checklist (content, organization, layout, collaboration) and my next step will be to revisit the collaboration criteria. We will discuss and decide what our expectations should be and what collaboration should look like. I think by being explicit and involving my students in the discussion will improve the quantity and quality of collaboration in class and online.

[Julie Lindsay]

Caroline, great work with wikis! Love your approach to introducing in a classroom setting and encouraging student ownership. Good luck with further collaboration!

[Barbara Morganfield]

Great scaffolding! My students can learn a lot from this! Thanks for sharing!

[Tasha Cowdy]

This sounds like a great learning opportunity.  I like how you took time to do some background work with KWL to assess prior knowledge and videos to think about what a wiki is and how it can be used.  I love the age group I teach, but your age group sounds so exciting too.  I hope you write more about your class wiki learning journey; I will enjoy following!

[Helen McConaghy]

I like your idea of group cooperation.  You have inspired me to try something like this with our 5th grade advisory groups.

[Catalina Valenzuela]

I love your K idea. And well I sympathise with your students....As a languages teacher I think the Wikis provide a safe environment for a more inclusive and challenging writing. Why should one write alone when one does like to write but love to speak ? Wikis offer just that. Could you  please share your collaboration criteria? Muchas gracias