Wikis

What I know is What You know
Working together to share knowledge has never been easier. Wikis allow anyone or only members or certain people you allow to edit and add to your pages. You can also set the viewer settings on your pages to be public, private, etc.

Please forgive my wickiedness...
The most common wiki would be Wikipedia. It's a wonderful wealth of knowledge. So many experts maintain the pages as well as contribute to it. I'd have I was wrong with what I was teaching my students about Wikipedia this past year. As you already know, I was only training to be a teacher-librarian this year. I was teaching my English 12 class about which online resources are reliable sources. A veteran English 12 teacher of 15 years advised me to make sure that I tell my students that Wikipedia is not a legitimate resource because in the past she has edited the pages with wrong information to prove a point to her students about how it is not reliable because anyone can edit the information. She said it took about 2-3 weeks before someone found that information. With her experience so much greater than mine and it was only my first year of teaching English 12, I passed on this information to my students.

Now that I have learned more about Wikipedia, I would have to change my mind about it. I think it is a reliable source. I think the key is... the information was corrected in the end. Plus there are so many wiki entries that not every page will have an error. Even then, our students should be using more than one source to confirm the information they are retrieving. So, I think it's a great place to start for students to gain background knowledge of their research topics. I also like the language level used on the sites and I think my students enjoy it as well because it's user friendly and my ESL/EFL students can understand it.

My Wiki: http://mapleleaflibraryskills.wikispaces.com/

Picking which wiki to use was quite simple with the help of wikimatrix which compares many different wikis' services. I picked the one that offered the most for K-12 Educators. I like the idea of being able to create 100 new wiki users for my students.

A Wiki? So what? I've seen it all before!
When I was going through my wiki tutorials, I had my doubts... How is this different from a blog? I am adding information on this page, adding links, etc... I guess the key was other could edit this page. Then I asked myself how is this different from Google Docs? Google Docs allows you to share pages with users as well. Perhaps it's the idea that it can be public? As I worked more with the pages, I realized that the navigation and how every page is connected to the main page is what makes wikis great. The layout is simple and similar to a blog. So, it was easy to navigate through the options, select my settings etc. I did have troubles with the navigation bar. I created a page for "Common Online Research Skills" at first. Then I created a second page called "What's a Research Paper?" I wanted the second page I created to be first in the navigation bar but it didn't give me a lot of options to move it around, so, I deleted the first page so that the second page could be first.

I do have one issue with online text editors and typing... I don't like how the formatting and editing online often is wrong or it lags. So, I found it easier to create my page from MS Word first and then paste it into the wiki page. Perhaps this is cheating and obvious not possible when you are editing a page that already exists, but presentation is important. I think a clear and simple look invites a reader to continue reading and they are not having troubles with following with the information because it's clustered or unaligned, etc.

Wiki Uses
Many teachers have used wikis in different forms:

Example#1: creating wiki pages about grammar conventions, so students are responsible for their own learning. (The Grammatically Correct Wiki. By: Bomar, Shannon. Knowledge Quest, Mar/Apr2009, Vol. 37 Issue 4, p51-51)

Example#2: "Wiki forums can be used for group work, writing, fact-checking, and proofreading" "[A]nd the use of wikis to teach critical faculties, such as how different views on issues can arrive on a consensus." (Wiki man. By: Norrington, Alison; Manning, Stephen. Times Educational Supplement, 3/30/2007 Issue 4730, special section p58-59)

Example#3: Use wikis to collaborate ideas and experience learning in a community for news writing as well as revisions.
(News writing using wiki: impacts on learning experience of student journalists. By: Ma, Will W. K.; Yuen, Allan H. K.. Educational Media International, Dec2008, Vol. 45 Issue 4, p295-309)

What's the GCD (greatest common denomenator)?
"[T]hat the core principle of wikis is collaboration. Once you start, you will wonder how you ever lived without one. (A Wiki for Classroom Writing. By: Morgan, Brian; Smith, Richard D.. Reading Teacher, Sep2008, Vol. 62 Issue 1, p80-82)

I would have to agree that collaboration is the key. This past year I have been very keen on peer editing with my grade 12s. It's quite the puzzle that my student get 90 - 100% correct on grammar skills exercises; however, when it comes to their writing it is littered with grammar errors that they were able to correct on a worksheet. So, I recreated my peer editing checklists to look like a grammar worksheet and my student work through each step when they are peer editing and I found this very successful. However, now that our provincial exams are e-exams, we often write on the computer for practice and students trade laptops to edit work and often students have different version of Word programs etc. which then half the time students are learning how to use the different function keys. Plus, there is a lot of email to me so, I can review the edits. This is a wonderful solution becuase everything is already here!

I also think wikis are a great place for students to collect the information and record their links on here. When students peer edit their work, then can click on the links and know exactly what and where the student author got their source from. Student editors can also comment on whether or not they agree that it is a reliable source to use in their paper or perhaps even suggest other ones to use.

I chose my wiki to be about Library skills because I think this is a great way to collaborate about these skills. My students have zero prior training about libraries and research skills. I don't think it's effective for only me to post information about these skills. I think it would be more effective for students who actually understand what their peers have most difficulties with abou these skills to put it in terms of student understanding. Other teachers may also notice or discover some helpful writing tips or techniques that can be added to the pages for sharing ideas and nothing will be lost because it's all collected on one page. Instead of random email messages or post-its everywhere.

Warning
"It is recommended that instructors provide highly supportive learning experiences to teach students how to use wikis and how to work collaboratively when implementing wikis to maximize the benefits of this emerging tool. " (Building a Networked Environment in Wikis: The Evolving Phases of Collaborative Learning in a Wikibook Project. By: Lin, Hong; Kelsey, Kathleen D.. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 2009, Vol. 40 Issue 2, p145-169).

Like everything else, we would have to scaffold our students about what collaboration is, waht does it look like, how to do it, etc. before they try it. And even then, additional lessons about working together may need to be strengthened. We might even have to teach them to respect different perspectives and only edit what is necessary not because you disagree or don't like something. Any other tips about how to teach online collaboration?