suggestions for using wikis in your classes

8/8/2019 Suggestions for Using Wikis in Your Classes

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WilliamL.Merrill,Ph.D.-2-

IndividualProjectsonaWiki:

InEDU290,studentsposttheircompletedworkonawikibyeitheruploadingtheworkto

thewikisiteorbyembeddingworkfromanothersite.Wikipagesarewebpagesthatcan

bechangedeasilybyauser.Theusermayaddtext,images,links,audio,orvideotoatheir

wikipages.Assuch,wikisbecomeexcellentplacesforstudentstosharetheirworkwith

youandothers.

Lesson/UnitPlans

Ifyourstudentscreateindividuallessonplansorunitplans,awikiisanoutstandingplace

fortheircreation.Ratherthanusingawordprocessingdocument,studentscancreatea

wikiandincludeallthepartsoftheplanyourequire.However,thestrengthofusinga

wikiismulti-fold.

• First,studentscanaddimportantlinkstotheirplanthatmaybefollowedrather

thansimplytypingtheURLintoadocument.

• Second,studentscanaddallformsofmultimediademonstratingeffectiveuseofa

varietyoftoolstohelpstudentslearn.Therefore,youcaneasilyviewthetypesofmaterialsthestudentsareproposingtousewiththeirstudents.

• Third,studentscanincludedownloadablelessonworksheetsontheirwiki.

• Fourth,studentscaneasilysharetheirworkwithothersintheclass,withouthaveto

payforcopies,bypostingthewiki’sURLtoaBlackboarddiscussionforum.

• Fifth,youcanmonitoreachstudent’sprogressbycheckinghisorherplansandwiki

historyregularly.Bydoingthis,youcangiveassistancetostudentswhomightnot

knowtheyneedit.

• Sixth,youdonotneedtolugaroundhugestacksofpaperstograde;youcanaccess

theirfinalplanonlineandgradeitusingyourrubricorotherassessmenttools.

AnnotatedBibliographies:

Youmayaskyourstudentstokeepanannotatedbibliographyofusefulresourcesforyou

class.Onceagain,studentsmaykeeptheirlistsinwordprocessingdocuments,ortheycan

keepthemonlineinawiki.Forthistypeofassignment,youcanhaveeachstudentcreate

theirownwikiandputtheirannotationsontheirhomepage,oryoucanhaveaclasswiki

witheachstudentcreatingtheirownpagefortheirwork.Theadvantagesofwiki

annotatedbibliographiesinclude:

• Theabilitytolinktotheresource[andno,notallresourcesneedtobeInternet-

bases],

• Youcanmonitorstudentprogressandgradetheirworkwithouthugestacksof

paper,and,

• Studentscansharetheirworkwithfellowstudentswithouthavingtopayforcopies.




JournalsandotherPapers:

Aswiththetwoabove,anyassignmentthatiswrittencanbetypedonawikiinsteadofin

awordprocessor.AnexampleofanonlinejournalismyChinajournalat:

http://merri1w.wikispaces.com/China.Examplesofscholarlypapersonwikis,canbe

foundinanynumberofplacesincludingWikipedia[e.g.onJeanPiaget:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget ].

AnOnlinePlacetoShareClassWork:

ThisishowwikisareusedinEDU290.Thestudentsestablishgroupwikis[sincethereare

smallgroupassignments],andthenestablishindividualwikipageswithintheirgroup

wikifortheirindividualwork.

GroupProjectsonaWiki:

Anythingthatislistedaboveasanindividualassignmentcanalsobedoneinagroup

assignment.Whenusingwikisforgroupassignments,youcancreatethewikisinoneof

threeways.Oncethestudentsareintheirgroups:

• Onestudentcreatesthegroupwikiandinvitestheotherstudentstojointhewiki.• Thestudentscreatethewikitogetherwithacommonuseridandpassword.

• Youcreatethewikisandgivetheuseridandpasswordstoeachgroup.

Isuggestyouuseoneofthefirsttwosinceitputstheresponsibilityonthestudents.Inmy

EDU290classes,Ihavethestudentsusethesecondmethodtocreatetheirwikis.

AnexampleofagroupannotatedbibliographybyNormaBailey’sclass:

http://diversitysitesresourceguide3.wikispaces.com/




MAJORCautions:

Sinceyourstudents’workswillbepublishedonlineforalltosee,therearesome

importantconsiderationsyouneedtoaddresswithyourclasses.

• Copyright:Studentsmustbeverycarefulnottobreakcopyrightlaws.

• CreativeCommons:Thecommonsareamuchbetterresourceformultimediasince

studentscanusethematerialsaslongastheyfollowthecclicense.

• Images/VideoofMinors:Studentsshouldnotincludeanyimageorvideoofaminor

online!Whilethecaselawonthisisuncertain,Iwouldhatetoseeoneofyour

studentsbethe“testcase”incourt.

• Editing:Ifwikisareleftunprotected,anyonemayaccessthemandchangethe

information.Therefore,Istronglysuggestyouhaveyourstudentspasswordprotect

theirwikistopreventsomeonefromdamagingtheirworkproduct.Ifnotprotected,

studentsstillcangettheirworkbackthroughthehistorytab,butwhenworkis

altered,itcausesgreatstressforthestudents.

CurrentlyRequiredinEDU290:

Students:• Createa“talkingphotograph”usingFotobabble;

• Createanaudiopodcastwithmusic;

• Createadigitalstorytellingmovie;

• Createadigitalvideoonaparticulartopic[recordingvideo,importingittothe

computer,editingandfinishingthemovie];

• CreateaPowerPointpresentationwithnarrationusingProfCast[resultingina

movie];

• Developagroupwikiwithagrouppageandindividualstudentpages;

• Uploadtheircompletedworktotheirwiki,orYouTube,orSlideshare;• Embedvideos,audiofiles,andimagesontheirwikipages;

PleaseunderstandthatnoneofthetoolsweuseinEDU290arecomplicatedordifficultto

use.Allthetoolsweuseofferexcellenttutorialsandaredesignedfortheaverageperson

acrosstheworld.Therefore,evenifaparticularstudentdidnotgetcertainthingsina

class,s/heshouldbeabletocompletetheworkontheirown.TheWeb2.0sitesweuse

are:

• http://www.flickr.com/forthehugecollectionofCreativeCommonsimages

• http://www.wikispaces.com/fortheirwikis

• http://www.fotobabble.com/fortheir“talkingphotograph”

• http://www.youtube.com/foralltheirvideos

o Someusehttp://www.archive.org/forthestudents’videoinsteadofYouTube

• http://www.slideshare.net/fortheirnon-videoPowerPointpresentation

Youcanseeexamplesofstudentworkat:http://vash1.wikispaces.com/

suggestions for using wikis in your classes

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