World of Wiki

Up until recently I also did not know that Wikipedia was a wiki. I guess now it makes sense since we have explored the texts and “wiki” being in the work Wikipedia. In my early years at college I just know that teachers told us not to use or cite Wikipedia as a reference and I was not too sure why. Now I know because it is a forum for information that can be changed, updated and added to by anyone. 

I have used a wiki before but only in my previous class as an undergrad student. When I first used it I found it to be very different than any other website and tool that I’ve used. Once it was explained I was able to navigate with ease and was able to create a beautiful Wiki on Butterflies that was my original Unit Plan and a School Bag on Mnemonics. However those were the only times I used a wiki until now. Pbworks is the only one I have used to create my own wiki, however it seems now I have used and accessed many before not quite knowing what they were.

 I have never used a wiki in a classroom but after reading I realize that there are hundreds of uses for them. Once specific site had 50 uses for Wikis; some examples were virtual field trips, student portfolios, fan clubs, or a school/class newspaper.  Teachers can set up classroom sites, forums for assignments, feedback and collaboration between other classrooms and schools district wide or even worldwide.  While researching further on how to use wiki’s in a classroom I found these terms that were not only cute, but explained the roles of those who use wikis:

Roles 
Champion – a person who can train others or help them get started
WikiGardener or WikiGnome – those who like to fix typos, find citations for quotes, fix broken links, and add links
WikiFairy - someone who makes format changes to make the wiki more visually appealing.
WikiTroll – those who like to insight a reaction from others by posting controversial content or doing disruptive things. WikiTrolls do not exists when wikis require a login with a secure password because they are not anonymous

Now knowing how wikis are used and can be used I would love to integrate the use in to my classroom. They are a quick and interactive way to get the students, teachers and parents involved in the learning of technology and the classroom. 

Here is a wiki we did as a group on TubeChop. TubeChop also works in tandem with YouTube. By choosing video and uploading it to Tube Chop you can select shorter pieces of the video to suit your means. This can be used in any classroom for any subject area. For example, you can take a part of a video and turn it into a writing prompt, or you can show a part of the butterfly life cycle. Here is our PbWorksWiki