Using Wikis
June 25, 2009 by tlehmann
Wikis are an easy-to-use, effective tool for teachers to use professionally and in the classroom. I currently have two wikispaces. One is used by the staff at our school and one is used by my students.
Staff members have been using wesbookstudy.wikispaces.com for various book studies. Last summer was our first year to attempt a book study. At the time only a few teachers felt compelled to stretch their minds and try a more contemporary book study instead of the traditional meet for lunch to discuss the book chapter by chapter. Those that partook of the task found it much easier than expected and more convenient since we all had different travel schedules for the summer.
My hope was to get more teachers on board in the fall by having ESL teachers share their most effective teaching ideas. Since I was the lead ESL teacher, I thought it would be a great way for teachers to share ideas, ask questions, and get new information. However, the teachers did not embrace it as I had hoped.
Although I am happy to report that we are once again doing a summer book study. This summer is a much larger group of teachers and although they may not be contributing to the discussion via comments on the wiki, they are asking how to visit the site. Slowly but surely the idea is catching on!
My favorite wikispace is watching my students type their stories in the space and having their friends elaborate their stories. I have found this to be most helpful to my first grade students who limit themselves to a 3 sentence story. Their friends add more sentences and more details to the original story. When the initial student rereads the edited story, they actually see what I was trying to show them but this time it is in the eyes of a child and the light bulb turns on!
I have attempted to have other classes and other grade levels share the wikispace with my class but at this time there have been no takers. Would love to have my students collaborate with other grades on particular key concepts learned throughout the year.
This coming school year each class is hoping to adopt a university. We are hoping to encourage students to not only do their best but to make the dream of college a reality. By conversing with college students and professors they will see that learning is a life long adventure. At this time I am thinking that the wiki may be a great way to converse with our adopted university.
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I was wondering if you could give me a little more detail of how you used it for a book study. We are going to try a district wide book study this year. We have been able to choose between about 7 books and through the year, we will meet with our small groups and discuss the book we are reading.
As I am reading Will’s book, I am trying to decide which tool (Blog or Wiki) may be the best supplement to our study. I think it would be a great way to introduce our teachers to a blog or wiki. At first glance, I think a Wiki would be the best way, but I am trying to think what types of things could be done with it.
I used the wikispace simply because it was a new tool that I was trying out. As each teacher read the chapters she would leave comments about her understanding of the text, her connections, inspiring ideas, or questions.
Using the wiki was a great tool for us to use as the four of us were all in different places for the summer vacation. Everyone was able to participate in the discussion. After each post the teachers were asked to leave their initials just so that we would have an idea of who was making the comment. However, that can be intimidating for some teachers who might be new to the experience.
In hind sight I am thinking that perhaps a blog is better for book discussions. Blogs are great for conversations and wikispaces are great for changing texts. In book studies the teachers are not changing other teacher’s texts; they are leaving their comments and connections. Thus the blog would probably be a better choice.
However, think about this… ownership in blogs is one person and ownership in wikispaces is more of a community. The blog is dependent on the owner of the blog (as you know it took a month for me to reply to this blog). The wikispace is not dependent on the owner; anyone can make a comment to the wikispace. The discussion is more of a community. In our wesbookstudy.wikispaces.com Kerrie feels as much ownership to the wikispace as I do.
Another plus for wikispaces is if you plan to revisit the book, it will be easier to retrieve rather than scrolling down forever to find the original blog. We have moved onto another study this summer but I was able to pass last year’s book to another interested teacher. It was easy for her to revisit our bookstudy and to add her reflections from the book. If we want to revisit this book again with another group of teachers, it will be easy to find.
Just a few more thoughts to ponder!