Using Wikis in the ClassroomAnna-Mieke MulhollandTeacher LibrarianEmmanuel College

Teacher Librarians ...The leaders in the field... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

Plan ...Why use wikis?Is it hard???? How to have a stress-free wiki-lifeFree and private wikis online

Why Use Wikis with Staff? It’s a great collective memoryIt’s a great dumping ground for ideas trawled from conversationsGreat way to store practical policiesProblem solving with departmental issuesWork with other teachers to create collaborative lesson plans (link to a reflective blog??)

Using Wikis with StudentsGreat place to store resources eg, annotated bibliographies, websites, writing samples Maintain a journal of group workCreate a glossary of terms as students work through a unitPeer review (link to a blog?)Organise a group!

Thoughts on keeping it stress-free...First time round, they need lots of support to remind them why and how.Don’t feel it has to be beautiful. It’s scrap paper.Get the kids to develop organisational tools, eg, colour coding their work.Check it.Email them or add to their wiki.

... Stress free wikis.. Teach the students first, let them play on one for the whole class, then give them the real thing. They need to get the “plays” out of their systems.Actively teach them to use attachments, add hyperlinks, create new pages if necessary.Remember, you know more than them.

Wiki-spaces – free and privatehttp://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers You can get an ad –free wikispace for free as an educatorhttp://www.wikispace.com/ not as pretty... www.google.com Yes- Google even does wikis ... And they’re the prettiest I’ve seen.

Great ideas.. See this site for a list of 50 ways of using a wiki http://tiny.cc/QiVru