What In The World Is A Wiki

What in the World is a Wiki?
Please log in using the web address and username on your handout!

Workshop Objectives
Participants will gain the technical knowledge needed to set-up and maintain a classroom wiki in a secure manner.
Participants will be presented with creative methods to bridge the gap between Language Arts and Reading through online wiki communities, including literary review libraries, readers' response, collaborative book report projects, literary magazines, and more.
Participants will be given criteria to assess student wikis and maintain a high standard of grammar.
Participants will themselves experience logging in and writing on a wiki.

Overview
What IS a wiki??
“wiki” is the Hawaiian word for “fast”
A website consisting of user-generated content
www.wikipedia.org
PBworks is a wiki-hosting company that offers free wiki accounts for educational purposes.

Why Wiki?
Fosters collaboration between students
Expands time outside of the classroom
Facilitates peer review, revision, and editing
Instant publishing of student work
School-wide applications
Increased student motivation

Why Wiki?
“When students write a paper, they're usually only writing for their teacher. When they know their peers will read what they write, students care and they try harder.” - Mike Lawrence, Executive Director, CUE
“Teachers should use wikis in their classrooms because it is a user-friendly, effective way to create an online learning community. It’s a fun and easy way to incorporate technology into the learning environment.” – KC Rice, 7th grade Reading

Why Wiki?
“Using a wiki motivates me because I can see other assignments that were written before mine and see what other people have thought of what I have done. A wiki benefits me as a learner because other students can comment on my work and I can see if I should do better.” – Dreyton, 6th grade
“Most kids hate to write so they will not do their homework, but if the teacher says to go to the wiki and do it, most kids will because it involves the computer and it's easier.” – Codi, 6th grade

Possibilities
Book Reviews
Collaborative Projects
Literary Magazines
Classroom Discussion
Student Writing Portfolios
Big Ideas and Questions
Homework help forums
PTA and Parent forums
Classroom Websites
Department Websites and Lesson Libraries
Professional Development
And so much more!

Your Turn
In our Wiki, click the Discussion: Questions About Wikis link. Post your response as a comment at the bottom of the page.

Security Concerns
Completely private, password protected
Teachers can set up accounts for students – no email accounts needed!
Automatically generates passwords and usernames

Security Concerns
All changes to pages are logged automatically with the “Page History” feature.

Security Concerns
Teachers receive notifications via email of all edits and comments.
Be sure to have consequences in place for students who misuse your wiki.

Set-Up Concerns
PBworks has an outstanding user manual that will help you get set up in no time.
They also send out daily emails during the first week of your subscription to help you.

Set-Up Concerns
On our wiki, we have collected some of the most helpful guides, along with some of our tips to help

Example – Book Review Wiki
Creates a student generated data base of book reviews
Students summarize and evaluate great books they have read

Fosters literary community and excitement among students
Students comment on reviews to share opinions and recommendations

Dividing reviews by genres turns the wiki into a database to help students select new books for personal reading

Example – Classroom Website
Post online directions for assignments
Host PowerPoint slideshows, handouts, and other digital media to support class lessons

Example – Classroom Website
Create an online assignment calendar to increase communication with parents and students

Example – Group Project Wiki
“Expands” classroom time- students can work collaboratively in and out of the classroom

Encourages peer evaluation and review: students edit and review each other’s work to ensure project meets guidelines

Templates allow teacher to outline project requirements

Example – Writer’s Workshop Wiki
Students compose and edit their writing online
Gives students access to work at home and at school without flash drives or disks

Example – Writer’s Workshop Wiki
Classmates give feedback for improvements
Increases student pride in work, creates community of writers, and facilitates the revision process

“Wiki-fying” Your Lessons
Almost any lesson can be adjusted for use with a wiki
Benefits of doing this are innumerable
Encourages academic interactions between students
Gives teacher control over project while still giving students freedom
Built-in framework for project through use of templates, folders, and links
Can be used to scaffold learning by guiding students’ thinking

Three Keys to Success:
Clear Objectives - keep students focused
Framework and Scaffolded Instruction - helps students achieve more than they could normally, with minimal intrusion on your part
Rubrics for Assessments - avoids "Facebook Syndrome"- that everything on the computer is just for fun and not serious. Helps you grade fairly in this new medium

Clear Objectives – both for your wiki and for your students
Wiki Objectives:
Who is the wiki for? Who will it be seen by? Who can post? Set security options
How will the wiki be organized? Use folders and linking
Student Objectives:
What skills do you want students to demonstrate?
What information should students include? Templates help shape student responses

Scaffolding Instruction
Post directions in obvious, easy-to-find places: FrontPage, Sidebar
Templates support student thinking process while helping them follow directions
Unlimited multimedia resources- post TeacherTube videos, photos, website links, etc.
Upload Word Documents, PowerPoint Presentations

Rubrics for Assessments
What criteria will students be assessed on? Number of posts? Quality of posts? Commenting on each other's posts?
Use PBworks’ email notifications to keep track of edits and updates to make monitoring and grading easier
Post rubrics in conspicuous places, hold students responsible for both content and conventions

Your Turn
Follow the directions on either the FrontPage or the SideBar on our wiki for creating your own page.
Use the “Workshop Attendees Template”
Place your page in the “Workshop Attendees” folder
When you finish, browse the pages being created by other participants.
Click on “Workshop Attendees” folder in Navigator on right hand side to browse all pages
Leave a comment to say hello!

Your Turn
Take some time to explore the “Excellent Examples of Wikis to Visit” link in the SideBar
Links to view three of our own wikis
Link to PBworks’ Public Page where you can view wikis from teachers across the country

Your Turn
Click the “Possible Applications” link in the SideBar.
Collection of lesson plans and other ideas for using wikis.
Post a comment with one idea for how you can use a wiki in your school or classroom.

Thank You!
Jessica Campbell, Oak View Middle School, Alachua County
campbellj@gm.sbac.edu
Kathleen Safi, Florida Virtual School Connections Academy
kathleen.safi@gmail.com
Our wiki will remain active after the conference.
Please refer back to it for ideas and post a comment letting us know how you are using wikis at your school!

What In The World Is A Wiki

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