What+is+a+wiki?

What is Wiki 1. Introduction Wiki is a website that can be used for collaboration and discussion by visitors who can add, edit, or remove contents. According to “Front Page”, Wiki is a mail system, and a fun way of communicating asynchronously across the network. ( http://c2.com/cgi/wiki ) There are several opinions of technologists and media specialists who have various ways of defining and using wiki as a tool. They all seem to agree that it is a very functional tool to be used in the classroom by teachers and students to share ideas, and work on team projects in and out of the classroom. This paper explores the wiki’s impact on education, some issues and implications, as well as the future of the wiki. 2. Impact on Education One of the most interesting features of the wiki is the ability to use the site for k-12 grades. I especially liked the wiki that was used in grades 4-6 for collaborative storytelling and personal observation. The website created a great deal of interest in the reading of the book, and the students were excited to share thoughts on the meaning of what they read. What a novel idea? A place that encourages social interaction and effective learning. http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/wikis/ Another exciting feature of the wiki is that it can be updated anytime and anywhere with the use of any web browser. This makes it a useful tool for teaching online students. High school and college students are now taking classes online, and the wiki can be the connective medium between the instructor and the other members of the class. Over the years, walls have been created within the education system by teachers who felt that learning could only be done inside the classroom with them standing in front of the class giving a lecture with only occasional feedback. The wiki is changing that perception. According to “Best Educational Wikis of 2010,” wikis can be used to break down borders and build unique and captivating experiences that learners and educators will remember for years to come. http://blog.wikispaces.com/2011/01/best-educational-wikis-of-2010.html 3. Issues and implications Teachers have used trial and error approaches to the wiki and have offered advice on what has not worked well in their classroom. One error was in the creation of a narrow scope and not letting the students be in charge to express themselves. According to “My Brilliant Failure,” If you try to use an instructional fill-in-the blank approach you are not letting the participants be in control of the content. http://kairosnews.org/my-brilliant-failure-wikis-in-classrooms#comment-6191 A major issue is the time constraint when individual computers are not available for each student. To compound that issue is the fact that some of my students do not have access to the internet at home. In this situation, the wiki update has to be modified to accommodate all of my students so that each student can participate and complete the project in a timely manner. According to “Wiki in Education,” wikis are collections of opinions. http://c2.com/wiki?WikiInEducation I want my students to express themselves, but I also want them to be able to distinguish between fact and fiction. As a teacher, I have more control over the content of the class wiki, can detect student errors, and the student responsible. Fortunately, according to Richardson in “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts”, there are vastly more editors of public wikis who want to make it right than those who want to make it wrong. “ When mistakes occur or vandals strike, the collaborative efforts of the group set it straight, usually very quickly. ( Richardson, 2010). I feel that it is my duty to advise students when dealing with public wikis that they might want to obtain more sources for validation purposes. There is about a two hour or so window when the information they obtain might be slightly inaccurate. 4. The future The consensus from my research is that wikis will continue to evolve. According to “Everything Wiki,” what previously were sites with lots of text ( and very little, if any, graphics ) has transformed into media-rich, graphic sites that look like normal websites, but just offer the capability to edit the content in real-time. http://wiki.wetpaint.com/page/Wiki+Future. The advantage to the inclusion of other websites, online chat, and additional software give the wiki that extra credibility feature that was missing in its earlier years. According to “Digital Ether,” a lot of people live a big part of their lives in the web. They communicate, share their most important things over the web. http://wikifuture.net/stories/tag/future/. It is exciting that education is coming into the digital age and is now using the technology that the students ( digital natives ) use for entertainment. According to Richardson, we ( digital immigrants ) who use the tools of the Read/Write Web need to be connectors, content creators, collaborators, coaches, and change agents.(Richardson, 2010). The novelty of the digital immigrants and the digital natives being able to interact and learn from each other is an awesome idea that is evolving.There is no longer a need for the teacher to pretend that they know everything. All I need to do is to chart the course, let the students be active participants, and all of us can grow together with the help of gadgets and widgets. 5. Resources Atlas of the Futures. (2009 ). Digital Ether. http://wiki.future.net/stories/tag/future/ Carole. (2011). Best educational wikis of 2010. http://blog.wikispaces.com/2011/01/best-educational-wikis-of-2010.html Curriculum Materials Information Services. ( 2011). Resourcing the curriculum. http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/wikis Front Page. ( 2010 ). http://c2.com/cgi/wiki Richardson,W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (p. 56, 154-155). Wetpaint. (2011). Everything wiki: Wiki future. http://wiki.wetpaint.com/page/Wiki+Future