Wiki Wonderland...



While completing my History Degree I clearly remember citing Wikipedia as one of the sources for my final paper in my Social History of the Vietnam War course.  I remember handing it in with an “I nailed that!” feeling and walking away.  The following week when our papers were returned my heart sank as I thumbed through the pages of my paper covered with red marks...My prof had circled every footnote containing any reference to Wikipedia and wrote, “NOT CREADIBLE, NOT A REAL SOURCE!”  I was furious and confused...Had I not just used an online encyclopaedia to find dates, figures etc.?  What did my prof have against online encyclopaedias anyway?  Being the less experienced student that I was, I didn’t approach my prof and accepted his comments and the mark he gave my paper - vowing to never use Wikipedia again...

...A few months later, I got it...Wikipedia...

My ex-prof should read the first section of Chapter 4 in our text, “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts” and he would learn that Wikipedia is increasingly viewed as a trustworthy and credible source.  Ok, so there are some people with WAY too much time on their hands sabotaging some entries with bogus garbage, however such entries are a usually rectified in a matter of hours.  Wikipedia users and contributors act as a neighbourhood watch program monitoring what’s being posted to ensure that it’s as accurate as possible and they do so with remarkable speed and accuracy.  It is wonderful to know that there are so many do-good’ers out there helping to keep Wikipedia a valuable resource... 

Learning about Wikis

I am happy to report that this week is the first week I felt familiar with the Web 2.0 tool we were to explore before checking out the Trailfire on it.  Other than Wikipedia, I didn’t use wikis before starting this program last summer.  For my Inquiry-Based instruction course, I made a wiki called the Science Yellow Pages for my Culture of Inquiry project.  Since then I have made another wiki examining the work of illustrator Lauren Child, for my other 501 course (Resources) which I am concurrently taking.

Before making my first wiki (Science Yellow Pages), I didn’t want to spend too much time researching and tried to jump right in and start making it.  However, I found that because I didn’t truly understand what the difference between a wiki and a simple website was I had to step back and do some preliminary research.  I searched youtube and stumbled across “Wikis in Plain English” and I’m glad I did as it is an easy to understand, introduction to wikis.  Jennifer had recommended that I use PBworks for my Science Yellow Pages, and I am happy she did.  PBworks is very easy to navigate and makes wiki creation a synch.  I also used PBworks for my second wiki, on Lauren Child and was equally happy with it.  I would have had less success with PBworks had I not viewed the “Wikis in Plain English” video as having an understanding of how wiki pages are linked together makes creating them that much easier.

What I didn’t know much about before this week was using and joining wikis that other people have created.  This week’s Trailfire helped me see the potential in doing this.  I found the WebTools4U2Use Wiki particularly rich and useful. The amount of information and links posted on this wiki is incredible – if only I had discovered it at the beginning of this course, I would have saved myself a lot of time!  This ever-growing wiki is a testament to the collaborative nature of Web 2.0.  That being said, not all wikis are created or used equally...

I googled the terms “wiki and education” and “wiki and teaching” and had far more results for articles about using wikis in education than actual wikis about education.  I then googled “wiki directory” and found numerous wiki directories however didn’t find any of them very useful.  Hoping for better luck, I went to Del.icio.us and searched “wiki directory” and was equally disappointing with the results.  These directories seemed outdated and many of the wikis that they were linked to were under-used and therefore didn’t have much on them.  Searching out “good” wikis seems to be a bit of a challenge, particularly when it comes to education as most of the hits that come up are for articles/sites discussing how wikis can be used for teaching and learning.  I found this aspect of learning about wikis frustrating, however I now realise that most of the wikis out there are created for a specific group of people who have a particular interest in them (i.e. colleagues working in the same school/district) and those people will be the ones using and creating the wiki the most.  At this point in my learning, I am going to focus on using wikis that I have created or people that I know (personally/professionally/academically) have created - if I happen upon a useful wiki created by someone else great, but I don’t see myself searching them out.

Wikis, My Personal Life & Learning

Wikis are used by many people for many different things whether a wiki be for professional, academic and personal purposes, the best part of a wiki is that it is social and can be edited and added to by anyone.  Thinking of how I might use wikis in my personal life, I tried to focus on the social aspect of wikis and how they might be useful to me for communiting and collaborating with others.

The practicality of wikis is quickly making them the preferred way for groups to communicate rather than email.  My mom’s side of the family is particularly tech savvy and I could see us employing wikis to communicate about upcoming visits etc.  The most complicated to coordinate and most anticipated event of the year being the Christmas visit.  I just looked in my inbox and last year I had over 100 emails regarding gifts, visits, food and schedules from my parents, brothers, aunts and uncles – let’s just say that that side of the family are planners!    I’ve decided that I’m going to try propose using a wiki to communicate regarding our Christmas visit – I’ve created this Christmas Visit Planning Wiki for us all to use this year.  This is bound to cut down on the tons of emails and confusion as to who is where when and what’s happening.  I look forward to trying it out this season...can’t believe we’re already planning for Christmas!

I am a horseback rider and recently have had veterinary problems with my horse.  I find I’m often looking up information about equine medicine online, however find most sites are not thorough enough and leave me wanting more information.  While searching out wikis on different topics I stumbled across WikiHorseWorld and am thrilled with what I’ve found.  I have yet to find such an extensive and up-to-date resource for horse lovers online.  Reflecting on the social aspect of this wiki, I’m encouraged to see many viewpoints are present on this one wiki.  In regards to equine veterinary health and in particular the lameness issue my horse has been dealing with, I found information on traditional, homeopathic, chiropractic, acupuncture and acupressure treatments.  Once again the social aspect of the wiki has provided the reader with numerous pieces of information to digest and in my case, treatments to try. 

In regards to how I see myself using wiki’s in my personal learning I see myself using wikis in three ways. 

1.    To find information

2.    To collaborate with other students/professionals

3.    To share my learning

While I did find many wikis which were not useful to me as a learner, I did come across a few teacher/TL wikis I see myself returning to over and over again.  As I mentioned, I see myself using the WebTool4U2Use wiki especially in this course!  I found the wiki created by Joyce Valenza for TLs both extensive and helpful.  In fact, I used this site to help me choose some upper level (YA) graphic novels for my Media Log assignment in my other course.  This site is also great because it is full of up-to-the-minute ideas and resources to use in the school library.  Valenza has encouraged contributors to include resources and tools which are free, making the wiki that much more practical.  Another wiki I have started using is the ChildLitWiki (LINK) which has helped me locate quality children’s literature titles to read for my media log.  On a very sensible note, I came across Blog Wiki when I was first setting up this blog.  It had lots of information about blogging etiquette and technology which helped me to get started with this assignment. 

Seeing that this is an online course, group projects are especially challenging.  In fact, in my other course I was given the option of working together with someone on a project or working alone.  I chose to work by myself as I didn’t want the headache of trying to coordinate with someone living in a different city on the assignment.  This is really unusual for me as I am a social person and a social learner and have NEVER (and I mean never), opted out of working with others.  Wikis offer myself and other students an easy way to share ideas and organize projects – making long-distance group work possible.  Too bad it’s too late to find a partner!

Having already used wikis to present assignments, I look forward to using wikis for future assignments.  Creating a wiki is a unique way to showcase learning as opposed to creating a simple word document.  In using a wiki to showcase learning you are creating a webpage which can include live links, images, videos etc. - adding to the many facets of the assignment.  Since wikis are more casual than essays, I like that I don’t have to create a formal piece of writing, but can use text features such as headings, bolding, bullets etc. to help the reader read and comprehend the text efficiently and learning to write in a casual yet effective way is a skill all learners (myself included) need to practice.

Wikis, Teaching & Learning

This is the part of my post that I could go on and on with (scroll down you’ll see!).  Wikis have so many applications in our schools - the sky’s the limit!

            Using Wikis as a TL/School Leader

The common obstacles of scheduling, convenience and information management which have hindered teacher (and TL) collaboration in the past, have become obsolete with wikis.  In his article written for the journal Tech Trends, “The Wiki as Knowledge Repository: Using a Wiki in  Community of Practice to Strengthen K-12 Education”, Geoffrey Sheehy notes that due to obstacles like the ones listed above, teachers end up teaching in a very segregated environment and working alone.   In Sheehy’s study he trained teachers to use a wiki to share resources and ideas; over three-quarters of the teachers in the study said the information on the wiki was “very helpful” and over half of the respondents planned on contributing to the wiki in the future.  This study illustrates that wikis are valuable to and appreciated by school staffs.  The following are ideas for how wikis can be used by TLs and school leaders to foster collaboration and increase professional development:

-Inventory of Resources: A wiki could be created to house an inventory of the various resources available in the school, but not catalogued in the school library.  Such resources could include “experts” on various topics; posters; books in the personal libraries of teachers; website links; artifacts; fieldtrip ideas; manipulatives; guest speaker recommendations and anything else.  The wiki would be organized by grade level and subject area for ease of use.

-Continuation of Discussions/Meetings:  Simple wikis could be created after staff/grade-group/department meetings to continue discussions after meetings are over.  Meeting minutes, resources, questions and comments could be posted helping to keep meeting times to a minimum and ensuring all people involved get the same information.  Furthermore, often times our best ideas come to us after-the-fact and having a venue to share ideas at a later time would be useful.

-Staff/Student Book Reviews:  As a way to promote literacy and get students excited about reading, a wiki could be created to house simple staff and student book reviews.  Students could check out the book reviews to help choose their next read.  This is sure to stimulate book discussion amongst students and staff alike and get everyone excited about reading.

-Promote New Ideas (i.e. Inquiry Learning/Web 2.0):  A wiki could be used to promote inquiry learning and/or using Web 2.0 tools in a school or school district as it would be easy for teachers to share ideas.  Teachers unsure of where to start could browse the wiki to get inspired and see other’s examples. 

-Communicating with other TLs:  TLs are often working alone in a given school and thus don’t have much chance to collaborate with one another.  Creating a wiki for all the TLs in a given district to share ideas resources, challenges etc. would be a great way to increase collaboration and professional development.

            Using Wikis for Teaching & Learning:

Technology in education experts support using wikis in our schools with students primarily because of their collaborative nature.  Students don’t often get the opportunity to write collaboratively in school while much of their non-academic writing is collaborative.  In his book, “The Socially Networked Classroom” William Kist reminds teachers that wikis such as Wikipedia are created by, “thousands of people across the world...and the entries are never completely finalised.  [And] we need to give students practice working collaboratively to produce these kinds of texts.”  Students are used to the collaborative nature of Web 2.0 and teachers can use their familiarity and desire to collaborate for rich teaching and learning.  The following are ways in which teachers and students can use wikis in our schools:

-Contribute to Wikipedia: Why not!  Have students research and add their new found knowledge to Wikipedia, what better way to introduce students to wikis than by contributing to the largest and most used one!  Alternatively, students could create a Wikipedia page about their school, helping to promote school spirt.

-Read WikiBooks:  Wikibooks are becoming increasingly popular in education as they range in topics and many are written in simple English excellent for early readers and ESL students.  Books are categorized by level and subject.  Clicking through a wikibook is a fun way to read.  Will Richardson suggests that students create or edit wikibooks to share their learning and work together.

-Create a Class Wiki:  Class wikis are a practical way for students and parents to stay connected with school life.  Not only could homework and upcoming events be listed, but links to resources and student work could be included as well.  Parents could be part of the wiki community by posting comments, questions and interesting links.

-Group Work Wikis:  Older students working in groups on projects could use a wiki to store and discuss information and ideas.  Teachers could check in to monitor the group’s progress, collaboration effectiveness and make suggestions as to resources and ideas.

-Assignment Guide Wiki:  Teachers and/or TLs could create a wiki as an assignment outline and resource guide.  As students come across more resources, they can post them for others to use – capitalizing on the collaborative nature of Web 2.0.

-Multi-School Collaboration:  Through use of wikis students can collaborate with students at other schools in their district and around the world.  Teachers at different schools could co-plan units of study and set up a wiki for students from both schools to contribute to.  Students could complete an assignment with a “wiki-pal” from another school with similar interests.  Where possible, students could meet up with their “wiki-pal” face-to-face.

As you can see, there are many ideas out there as to how wikis can be used in today’s schools.  While easy to use and very practical, wikis are a powerful tool for teaching effective collaboration.  Will Richardson puts it so well:

“The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort.” 

...Couldn’t have said it better myself!