Response to Blog 1 (Team 3) Misty McCarn

I agree that Wikis are an excellent tool for educators. However, I am going to have to disagree that Wikis are good sources for factual information.  There are two reasons for this.  The first reason is that many wikis are accessible for users to add or dispute information.  This may lead to information that isn't necessarily factual.  The other reason I do not feel wiki is a good source for factual information for students is because sometimes the information given is very in depth.  It may be hard for students to comprehend and dissect the information.  It is my belief that wikis are an excellent tool for educators to use as a source of Classroom Organization and Classroom Content.  Teachers and Educators can set up wikis to inform students of what is going on in the classrooms and also to set up activities such as blogs, book lists, chat rooms, etc.  I found some excellent samples of using wiki's for Media Centers at the following link...http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/--Wikis+to+Share.

Wikis, Part 2, Student 2

What are your thoughts about using Wikis in the Media Center? How can they be used most effectively? Are there drawbacks to Wikis?

A Wiki is “a collaborative tool that allows students to contribute and modify one or more pages of course related materials” (“Wikis,” 2015).  To begin with, let’s start with what makes a Wiki so unique: It can be edited by multiple users.  In my own opinion, this can get quite tricky.  The article “Seven Things You Should Know About Wikis,” states it best in saying that a wiki is a

 “Web page that can be viewed and modified by anybody with a Web browser and access to the Internet. This means that any visitor to the wiki can change its content if they desire. While the potential for mischief exists, wikis can be surprisingly robust, open-ended, collaborative group sites” (“Seven Things You Should Know About A Wiki,” 2005). 

Much like the popular “Dropbox,” if one person messes up, it can affect everyone else’s work.  There lies the drawback of using a Wiki.

However, used correctly, there are certainly appropriate uses for a Wiki.  How can it be best utilized in a Media Center? I think one way we can use it to students’ advantages is to make a community Wiki for teachers to post resources such as lesson plans and ideas.  Essentially, a Wiki allows for collaboration.  Teachers are always searching for lessons and eager to find new ideas.  What better way to collaborate with one another than to have a place to share our ideas?  As busy as we are at school, we often don’t get the time to stop and collaborate with other teachers, but the Wiki allows us to do so in an online forum right from our computers.  A Media Specialist would be an excellent person to organize and manage this online forum for teachers.

While Wikis are touted as collaborative tools, many seem to be passive "storage cabinets." What elements need to be present to move them toward being active spaces for collaboration?

            In an article published by Vanderbilt University, one of the top uses of a Wiki is “mini research projects in which the wiki serves as documentation of student work” and also “creating e-portfolios of student work“ (“Wikis,” 2015).  This is something I discussed with a senior English teacher at Ridgeland High School.  Recently, senior teachers have switched the “Senior Project” from a notebook layout to that of a Wiki.  Students are required to keep all of their logs, journals, and artifacts on a Wiki rather than inside a notebook.  How is this considered collaborative rather than a “storage cabinet?”   What the teacher likes is that she can “drop-in” to the Wiki anytime, adding documents or looking over and leaving feedback (M. Crutcher, personal communication, January 26, 2015).  The Wiki serves as a way for teachers and students to collaborate.  As a teacher, it makes the collaboration process easier.  Rather than taking up each student’s work, commenting, and handing back, the process can be expedited online which gives students quicker feedback. 

It’s the collaboration piece that makes Wiki both tricky and unique!  What do you think? Is the collaboration piece worth the potential flaws of a Wiki? 

References:

Seven Things You Should Know About A Wiki. (2005).  Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf

Wikis. (2015).  Retrieved from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/

Wikis - Meghen Bassel (Group 3, Student 1)

 

 Image retrieved from
www.creativeeducation.co.uk

In this day of technology, more and more information is being stored online.  Web pages have been a go-to source for information.  At some point in the not too distant past, people began to realize the need for a specific area that contained information yet was editable by many people.  It made sense to compile information from multiple sources in one area.  Wikis were created to fill that need.  

A Wiki is a web page that can be edited by more than one person.  The purpose of Wikis is to allow multiple people to edit online information so that the information can come from a greater source than just one person.  “Wikis work best when individual authorship is less important than the outcome that is created.” (Wikis) One of the best things about Wikis is that they can be moderated to restrict who can and can’t edit a page.  Additionally, the content can also be moderated to ensure the information being posted is on topic, relevant, or appropriate.  These features are key to having success with Wikis in a K-12 environment.  In contrast to blogs, Wiki content is directly editable.  While blogs certainly have their own place, there are some stark benefits to Wikis.  According to TeacherFirst.com, 

While commenting, and even posting, are open to the members of the blog or the general public, no one is able to change a comment or post made by another. The usual format is post-comment-comment-comment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are often the vehicle of choice to express individual opinions. A wiki has a far more open structure and allows others to change what one person has written. This openness may trump individual opinion with group consensus. (Wiki Walk-Through, 1998)

There are many free Wiki sites available including wikispaces.com, wiki.com, Google Sites, and pbworks.com.

“Wikispaces has been great so far. It is an amazing thing to learn through community building activities in an online environment that encourages the free exchange of ideas and emphasizes high level, clear communication and critical thinking.” – David Conlay, Estancia High School (IPad in Education)

Some concern with Wikis revolves around inaccurate or inappropriate data being posted.  Most educational Wikis are moderated, thus preventing most of this from happening.  Additionally, according to Hertfordshire Grid for Learning, "If your wiki is going to be ‘open’ for viewing, never publish pupil information or identifiable pupil images, or school information that you wouldn’t want published on the school’s website."(Wikis, TheGrid)

Image Retrieved from http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/ict/technologies/web2.0/wiki/

Wikis have a solid place in education.  Teachers can benefit by having classes work on a wiki with a certain topic.  Students within the class can add their information to the topic to create a vast amount of information.  Within the school library media center, Wikis can be created for students to share book thoughts or other information.  Finally, and possibly most important, collaboration between teachers and administrators can exist.  A wonderful example of this is Palm Beach County’s wiki that shares information on the use of iPads within their schools.  Timelines are presented, along with “how-to” sections.  The Palm Beach wiki can be found HERE .  As the saying goes, the possibilities are endless.

Creating a Wiki is typically a very painless process.  I found a wonderful article by the “howtogeek” for creating a Wiki.  Instructions can be found at the following sites : 

HowToGeek 

Mrs. Roncone

It is important for your teachers to feel comfortable using Wikis, so a few practice or set-up sessions in the media center might be called for.  You might also want to provide some examples of Wikis that contain additional information, such as :

http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/ict/technologies/web2.0/wiki/

To have success with your Wiki project, be sure to motivate individual students to continue to add thoughts so that the document does not become stagnant.  Interesting topics and project goals can keep things interesting.  My own future project includes having students create a comparison Wiki of books to their movie versions using a Wiki.  Other interesting ideas include conducting student book reviews and allowing students to create lists and genres of books they would like to see within the SLMC.  

Aside from interesting topics, it is important to build upon existing work within the Wiki.  To get the most out of it, students can use information from their Wikis for future class activities and perhaps even tests.  That bring about another idea.  Could your students be allowed to create a Wiki Cheat Sheet for a test?  It might be a great way to encourage the use of technology, student collaboration, and studying!  Additional student uses include conducting research or even creating a school newsletter.

  

On a personal note, I also hope to take advantage of the information available on library and media center topics that exist within Wikis.  I am sure that readers of this blog could offer other ideas for using Wikis in their SLMC, and I would love to hear them!

References

IPad in Education. (n.d.). Retrieved January 23, 2015, from
                http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/wiki/projects/ipadineducation/

Wikis. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/

Wikis. (n.d.). Retrieved January 23, 2015, from
                http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/ict/technologies/web2.0/wiki/

Wiki Walk-Through. (1998). Retrieved January 23, 2015, from
                http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/

 



Response to Group 3 / Student 1 / Blog 1  (by Catherine Page):

 

When I think of wikis, I think of Wikipedia. And I have to admit, I go to it more often than I probably should to look up people, items, histories, events, pretty much anything. When I watch TV, my computer is sitting directly in front of me, and if I see an actor or actress that intrigues me, I’ll look them up. Oftentimes, I bypass imdb in favor of Wikipedia because Wikipedia typically has a lot more information, and I like the layout more. I do this even though I know that the information on Wikipedia is only as accurate as the Tom, Dick, or Harry typing it in. This being said, I do visit other sources to verify the information, but still…

As a user, I am sold on the concept, obviously. But now you have me thinking about how to implement wikis into the educational experience – something I had not considered prior to this blog post. I love the idea Meghen, of allowing students to create a wiki cheat sheet for a test. They would have to aggregate the information (research) and then input it into the wiki page (note-taking). And in-so-doing, would be executing all the steps required to study for a test. So the final product (the cheat sheet) would be a relic or talisman, carried into battle as more of a conceptual good luck charm than anything. If that is, that all students with access to it, contributed with equally and with fidelity. There’s always the chance that one or more members of the group might benefit from something they did not actually help create. But even so, I think the idea is a great one.

Having a class wiki would also be a great idea since the wiki would be monitored by the teacher.  We would not have to worry about the accuracy of the information since the subject matter expert would be watching closely and contributing heavily.

I decided to google ‘wikis used by media specialists’ to see what ideas others might have on this topic. I found a very interesting site right off the bat:  http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/--Wikis+to+Share . They had some good ideas for using wikis, like: starting a wiki book club, wiki class notes, posting portfolios, and using wikis for media specialists’ workspace (Carolyn Starkey put up a wiki to chart comparisons between library automation systems).  In addition, there were some great ideas shared on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. The teacher, Vicki Davis, lists the ways that she uses wikis for her class:  summarizing lessons, collaborative notes, introducing concepts and projects, posting important classroom information, and checking for student understanding and knowledge acquisition.

So it looks like wikis are a hit with educators, whether they use them for conducting, supporting, or enhancing instruction, as a means of communication, or as way to share professional knowledge. (An as an aside, this website linked to another great resource that might be of some use to any or all of us:  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/. I plan to take that back to my PLC on Monday and see if we can’t use some of the ideas and resources they suggest to help get our kids ready for the Georgia Milestone).