The wiki reminds me of a blog, but it is centered on a very defined topic. For example, I visited a wiki, research4children.wikispaces.com, that chronicled a first grade class's journey through research. The teachers and students built a wiki in order to share their successes and challenges. They also poste pdf. and word documents on how others can do the same research. They also posted pictures of their students doing the research and presenting their final projects. I also see it as a way to "publish" research.
The same first grade class/teacher did another wiki titled http://first-grade-science.wikispaces.com/.
My first inclination is to use this with teachers to "publish" their problem based projects, science or other content areas, so that it build a bank of resources for the school. It can work the same with students. It shows that research isn't just for a day or two, but can be year long; like true science, math, writing, history research. It's another way to build stamina in reading, writing, etc. The key is to pick topics that sustain this type of learning/research.
I can also see wikis as a way to practice working as a team; teachers and students. You will have to agree on what's posted and how it is organized.
You make some good points about wikis, particularly with regard to making sure that teams/grades agree on what is on the wiki. The wiki can work in tandem to a 'notebook' (see your 6/22/2010 post and comments) - sorry cannot link in the comments box - or in place of one. With the wealth of wiki resources out there a team or grade can get started easily by using another's wiki as they slowly develop their own.
ReplyDeleteBTW, you can link the websites you mention in your post. Just highlight the title of the webpage or the address and click on the chain in the edit box and paste the copied http:// address in the window and voila, you have a link in your blog post!