Wikis+in+the+classroom

Wikipedia is growing more familiar to students and teachers, but it is only one type of wiki software. Wikis have been described by creator [|Ward Cunningham] as “The simplest online database that could possibly work” ([|Cunningham]). Wikis allow any member to add, delete or edit data. They also track changes and allow older versions of pages to be restored. Some teachers are beginning to use wikis in their classrooms in the form of collaborative projects. Each student creates material as well as edits and responds to material created by other students. The teacher can also join in this collaborative activity. One example of such a collaborative wiki is the Westwood school wiki created by Georgia private school teacher Vicki Davis (Davis). Using wikis for collaborative classroom projects is supported by earlier research. In their 4-year study of a collaborative learning activity using hypermedia, Sandra Turner and Vito Dipinto found that students and teachers tended to form stronger ties with each other and with the subject matter when they worked on collaborative projects. One student in this study reported that creating a project as a group had positive side effects. “The major good thing about the teaching method used is that it brought us together more as a class. This was simply because we had to rely on each other for help, as well as be responsible enough to help other people. It is a lot easier to come together as a community when you all have a common assignment with the same problems and things to do. (Turner) Using wiki software is relatively easy for students and teachers, thanks to new tools that allow simpler management and hosting. Setting up and hosting a wiki is somewhat technical, but a number of low-cost or free alternatives are appearing. Wikispaces is for-profit wiki hosting company that is giving away 100,000 free wikispaces to teachers (“[|Wikispaces]”).Teachers don’t need to know complicated coding language and don’t have to set up and maintain a server. They simply set up the space and use it however they see fit. Other web tools are also proving useful to teachers who decide to use wikis. [|RSS aggregators] are tools which notify users that content on a website has updated. Davis uses these aggregators to keep track of when and if her students have completed required edits of pages on her wiki (Davis Interview). With these new tools, teachers have the ability to create novel, flexible, collaborative projects that will engage students.

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