Wikis are much like blogs, except anyone can edit or add material (they can be password protected), as in the case of Wikipedia, making them great tools for collaborative writing or group projects. One collaborative project, regardless of level, could be building a dictionary with previously unknown words from class readings. They're also good for letting students see others' work, so a ready supply of models is always at hand, and they can become the textbook, as Matt Barton is trying to do for Rhetoric and Composition.
Four free wiki hosts are wikispaces, pbwiki, schtuff, and Wetpaint (and there are many more). One that charges a nominal fee is editme. I've used this one for my classes (see the goodwriting wiki).
Paul Allison has created a wiki, High School Online Collaborative Writing, on which the students at East Side Community School write on a tremendous variety of topics. Paul has his own blog where he writes about Weblogs & Wikis & Feeds.
Clarence Fisher set up a wiki at his middle school for studying history: Studying Societies at JHK. He has a well-written rationale for Wikifying Knowledge.
As we return to our study of Egypt this week, our wiki will become an active space again. Over the previous unit, as students used this tool for the first time, we learned a great deal about collecting and shaping knowledge. Students learned that they had to be active researchers, collectors, and designers of knowledge. They were interested in the fact that something written by one of their classmates could be added to, edited, and re - shaped by others. This was a new revelation for many of them. Starting to use this tool again this week, it first of all will be interesting to see if the kids still retain this understanding of using a wiki as a learning tool.
But he wonders:
But there is no original information that goes in to this space, it all comes from other spaces. So the question rises: is there any reason to use a wiki if we are using it only to collect information? Is it any different from taking regular notes on paper?
He responds affirmatively that there are some differences, differences of 24-hour accessibility, a public audience, and:
because the wiki is a space that anyone in our classroom can contribute to, it becomes much more then a single set of notes, it becomes an evolving, communal collection of our knowledge and understanding that grows in depth as our understanding does.
Using a wiki in this way also forces students to determine the importance and validity of information. Over the last unit of study, students were forced several times to confront the fact that they had posted information online that was not completely correct. They were forced to revise what they had written and re - think their understandings. Sorting, validating, and exposing overwhelming amounts of information is a skill that simply cannot be demonstrated or practiced using text that is not electronic.
I can't improve on what Clarence has already said, but I'd like to rephrase it. It is the interactions among the students and the recursive nature of re-visiting information that confronts them with contradictions between an individual's understanding and that of others, contradictions that lead them to reflect and re-construct their understanding, which in turn leads to a better understanding that is retained much longer.
It's important to realize that the teacher is a crucial element in wikis being used as more than a collection of information. As Clarence concludes,
although using a wiki to collect information can seem to be simply taking electronic notes, it can be a lot more.
