What+is+a+Wiki?

** Assignment #2 ** = What is “Wiki”  = I. **Introduction** I was first introduced to the concept of a wiki or wiki pages when I took a class last year. In this class, we were expected to create a wiki that had some educational use to it. I quickly saw how advantageous this could be for classroom use. Wikis were extremely easy to create and very user-friendly. Students could create wikis very easily on their own and could use them for multiple purposes. A very understandable definition for wiki is “a wiki is piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit web page content using any web browser.” (Ward, 2002) II. **Impact on Education** Wikis have definitely had a positive change on education and can be considered a very innovative use of technology. With so many teachers looking to try and incorporate the newest technology, a wiki is great way for students to be given another opportunity to use something that they made need to use in the real world. A teacher has so many different options in using a wiki; the main way that I see the use of a wiki is for students to present their work. In a time where teachers are forced to teach more and more curriculum, the wiki offers an outlet for students to do group projects without taking valuable class time. “ Wikis provide opportunities [|for students] to collaborate with other students, share what they have learned, and become a centralized online resource for educators.” (Wetzel, 2009) The revolutionary part of a wiki is that your class doesn’t have to end in the timeframe of a normal school hour. Students can constantly be learning more from the teacher, other students, or other information that’s provided. Each class could have their own wiki that is always being used. = III. Issues and Implications = The biggest issue or implication with using a wiki (especially in my school) is the lack of access too many of my students face in having a computer/Internet at home. The real way of using a wiki and making it effective is for students to be able to use it outside of the classroom. Unfortunately, I teach in an extremely poor district and at least 1/3 of my students do not have access to the Internet at home. A big issue I would face with this would be that I couldn’t require for my students to get on the wiki for homework unless I had given them ample time to do the homework in the classroom, providing Internet access to those who do not have it. This takes away from the purpose of the wiki because they’re not able to do it at home and in the non-school environment since they would have to complete it at school. Another issue that I could see that could possibly arise is that the wiki would have to be highly monitored by the teacher. If I did want my students to complete assignments on the wiki, then it would be my job to make sure that I was giving the proper feedback on any assignment they did. Also, if we’re allowing students to blog about the class as part of the wiki, that would have to be monitored as well by the teacher to make sure everything would be school appropriate.
 * Courtney Verellen **

IV. The Future
==  Just because there are some implications with using a wiki, I still believe that I would like to use them in my classrooms. Even though we cannot supply computers to every student (yet), I would like to think that it is still our job to expose the students to the types of technology out there. Even if we don’t use a wiki in our class, it doesn’t mean that they might not see one when they go onto further education. Why not help prepare them for it now? By simply incorporating the idea of wiki in class, that would help students be familiarized with the concept. There is a great article that we read for a previous class called, “ [|50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom] .” This article was very interesting to read because it discussed 50 different ways you could actually use wikis in your classrooms. All of the examples were completely pertinent, too; nothing that was unrealistic. The article broke down the uses into categories: “resource creation, student participation, group projects, student interaction, for the classroom, community and other.” The community category gave me a lot of ideas that could incorporate other knowledgeable individuals into a classroom like community experts if one was doing a community history. Also, it suggested a FAQ part that would be great for communicating with parents. Since it’s our goal of teaching students and preparing them for the future, why not expose them to the different types of technology early? It’s also very feasible that the current students we have will take an online class after high school. Incorporating ideas like wikis into everyday teaching can help students transition from the traditional class to that of an online learning community. == = V. References  = What is wiki? (June 2002). Retrieved from [] on January 23, 2011.   Wetzel, D. (June 2009). 5 strategies for using wikis in the classroom. Retrieved from [] on January 23, 2011 ==  “ [|50 ways to use wikis for a more collaborative and interactive classroom] .” (August 2008). Retrieved from [|http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a- more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/]  on January 23, 2011   ==