A Wiki for Classroom Writing/ Brian Morgan, Richard D. Smith. The Reading Teacher, 62 (1), pp. 80-82.

After reading Sara's post about Wikis I realized all I know about it is that there is a Wikipedia, which can be edited by its readers. I didn't think it is possible to use it as a classroom literacy tool. In this article, the authors explain what is a Wiki and how to use it in classrooms. They also provide some links to existing wikis to check.



In the lines below I will follow the article's chapters but instead of providing a review, I will write about what I found interesting and share my thoughts about wikis' use in the classroom.



What is a Wiki?...


"Wikis are designed to be created by more than one student … Wikis and blogs share much in common, but blog visitors simply add comments to the original content, whereas wikis allow visitors to change the content" –

Wikis can be used as a collaborative work of the entire classroom. The difference here between a blog and a wiki, to my opinion, is that a blog is more personal and a wiki is more public. You can change a wiki – it is meant to be changed, whereas blog postings aren’t.
I would have used a wiki for research pieces. For example – a literature wiki where the students explore a story’s/book’s characters, or its author / animator and publish their findings and so forth. It would be much more fun than just writing a book report. Each student (or in pairs) can focus on different aspect of the book to write about and to have links leading to each others’ topics.

"Wikis created at these sites are very easy to set up and allow teachers a great degree of control over who is able to read or edit the documents" –

Easiness and control are very important! If it is easy, it is more likely to be used. Control is essential to know that only the students who have the password can enter and edit the pages. You can also assure that only who you want can read it. I wondered how it is done… so I entered the www.wikispaces.com trying to register and found out that :

1. You can have it totally private where “Only wiki members can view and edit pages” but it costs 5$ per month (first month free), or

2. Protected (free) , where “Everyone can view pages, only wiki members can edit them” or lastly,

3. “Public” (free), where “Everyone can view and edit your pages”.


Setting up the project...

"The students then read and commented on their classmates’ work … Comments are created by inserting simple code into the text of the writing… Track changes feature of the wiki made the writing process more visible to the students and teacher…" -

It reminds me a little of the SubEthaEdit’s “ubiquitousness” idea, where students can comment and help revising with track changes, and probably do it from wherever there is a web access.

"Easy access to the wiki allowed students to participate more frequently and freely… brainstormed ideas or preplanning…drafts…Ultimately when using the wiki as collaborative writing community the students are more engaged with the writing process" –

Motivation is the key! I think these features help to motivate students to work!

Table 1 – Types of wikis useful for the elementary grades –

1. Classroom wikis - mrlindsay.pbwiki.com (See my December 8th posting).

2. Report wikis - arrrpirates.wikisaces.com – this one looks more like the familiar Wikipedia. It is a Pirate’s encyclopedia, with terms, names, photos etc.
3. School wiki sites – sfxschool.pbwiki.com – it looks just like a school’s website/homepage. They have here links to each grade level as well as blog for every grade level. I was curious to enter the 1st grade blog, but was disappointed to find out that it was the teacher who writes there, probably to share with the students’ parents.


Some helpful hints...

"Wikis are nearly bulletproof. Any mistake can be fixed" -

This idea, I think, constructs both the advantages and disadvantages of the wiki. Where many mistakes can be made by the students, they can be also fixed. The teachers’ role here is essential in leading the students to a positive and accurate learning experience.