What is a wiki and why should I use it?

Wiki...what is it? I'll admit I thought it was only specific to Wikipedia but it turns out there are a variety of wikis available for use. Wiki's can be used for group projects, business meetings, single author use, personal use, hobby, blogging of all sorts, and what I found important - education. 

Classroom use of a wiki could come in many forms. For example, students could use it for a group project or to work together to create a study guide. The wiki could be adapted in a variety of ways to suit classroom needs. Wiki's even have use outside of teacher and student use; they could be used for professional development or even parent communication.

Why not just use a blog? Wiki's are set up differently in that anyone can edit information as opposed to a blog where the original post cannot be edited. This allows a different kind of learning community to take place. In other words, it can be more collaborative.

I teach science, so of course I am naturally more interested in how this technology could be used in my classroom specifically. I also teach in a middle school so understanding how it could work with my age group is also an important task. 

Vocabulary is an idea. Students can work together on a vocabulary project where they compile vocabulary and create a great study tool. I love this idea as science is a language of its own and if students do not master the language then concepts become very difficult for them – almost impossible. Students can break up words and work collaboratively to create a simple list. Another idea is that students can work in groups and split the task into a definition, a sentence, and an illustration. There are a lot of ways to use wikis and vocabulary projects.

Collaboration on labs or experiments is another use wikis can offer. My idea for this is to provide a template and have students work together on lab. Students not only work on learning the content and lab skills of designing an experiment and working with data but also work on professional appearance of lab reports. Assuming students have internet access at home, it has potential to be done more appropriately because students would not be confined to in class time. 

Wiki’s can also be used as science journals. Students can record observations and respond to a variety of prompts. This has so many options behind it. The good thing about wiki's is that there can be one or more authors.

Group projects and collaboration on class work is a wonderful tool this offers. Not only will students be able to work together in class but they could work on class projects outside of class (assuming they have internet access) without having to find time they can all work or a place they can all meet. This is beneficial working with middle school students as they cannot drive.

Students can work together to create study guides. Students can be in the same or different classes (assuming classes are at the same point in the curriculum). Students could also use this as a place to ask questions they have and fellow students can respond.

Another idea for students is to work on a community improvement idea together.

Hopefully, this time typing also helps students become better typists. One struggle I faced on a project last year was having students write an essay on Newton’s Laws of Motion. We then went to the library to type and many students did not finish typing simply because their computer literacy skills were low.

Another benefit wiki’s can offer is being environmentally friendly. If you have the technology available why not use it? You can teach the same content but save paper and also teach students how to be technologically literate which is growing immensely in importance for future employees.

One note of caution - if anyone in the wiki can edit, students risk their information being deleted or replaced with incorrect information. Working with middle school students, I will have to set very clear expectations for how students are to work in a wiki and monitor closely what occurs. 

Here is an example of a high school science wiki page. What other science ideas do you have?

Why blog in a classroom?

I'd like to start with a better introduction to me. I just completed my second year teaching. I am currently on a transitional license which should be complete by August. I am also working on a master's degree in secondary science education which should be complete in a year. Both of my years of experience have been at Whittle Springs Middle School teaching 7th grade science. Whittle Springs is a school serving around 600 students with 87% of its students being classified as low-socioeconomic. My challenges have been not only figuring out this teaching thing but also how to teach a special type of student. The challenge has been well worth it in my mind.

I am always looking for new ways to engage students and help them learn. One way I have tried and seem to be successful with is incorporating technology. Students love the days I bring in the iPads for class and ask when we will be using them again. In fact, I had them write a comparative essay on two body systems by collecting their research using the iPads. I'm not sure it was ever quieter in my room (other than test days) as students worked diligently to gather their information...to write...which is something previously in the year I had struggled to get accomplished as part of a school wide effort to increase literacy in all subject areas.

This coming year I have many ideas I would like to try to incorporate more technology in and outside of the classroom to increase engagement with science. As part of my licensure program I am taking a course on technology in the classroom. One component of this class is to introduce us to blogging. Our challenge was to find a good example of a teacher blog and talk about that blog. I looked for one that is in my content area of science and is used for a classroom (not just a teacher talking to teachers). I found one by Derrick Willard who used his blog for his AP Environmental Science Courses.

He uses interesting titles, links, and pictures to capture his audience. For example, his June 3rd post has the title "New theme, same blog, old themes". He also has a picture to show what he is talking about and a link to provide examples of his goal. His goal is to use his blog for self-reflection and to use social media with students to increase engagement. His site is clean and easy to read as well as being easy to navigate. He seems to post his own blogs randomly; sometimes it is a week between posts and sometimes a month. But the section I truly enjoyed visiting was the class projects section.

He has a separate blog for each class section for each year. Within each section he uses the blog to communicate with students as follow up from class discussion and activities. He also uses this social media to pull back out past homework as a follow-up or extension opportunity. He also uses student work examples in his posts. He asks students to reflect and respond to his posts. He even has a link on the side to each student's blogs. The students used the blogs to ask questions about material they did not understand, post assignments, reflect on questions, and were commenting on each other's posts. This is a wonderful way to extend the classroom into the home.

I love the way he uses his site to communicate and extend learning outside of the restricted minutes inside a classroom. I also love that he offers great sources through his site as well as pulling students in using clips that would appeal to students. For example, one of his posts has a clip from The Daily Show with John Stewart. What's a better way to pull students in other than pop culture? His site offers links to websites on a variety of topics such as energy conservation, news stories in science topics from sites such as NPR, NBC, and Fox, and provides photos, maps, and graphs. I will definitely model my blog use after Mr. Willard - and so many ideas are already forming in my head.

I want a great tool for students and parents. I will want to create blogs for students to respond to based on class discussion. I want each student to have their own blog to ask questions for other students to respond to as well as posting about what they learned and are curious about. I want to provide links to sites and data for students to use for enrichment. As an example of a topic for the blog - I teach an Earth science unit which includes discussion of man's impact on the environment. Students could research different ways man impacts the environment (positive and negative) and create posts and have discussions about these impacts through the blog. It would keep students talking outside of class and create conversation for class the next day. I could also post links to websites that could help them get started or go further with their ideas. Or I could start a thread about global warming and have students respond to it. There are so many ways this tool could be used. This is also a great tool for parents to keep up to date on what we are discussing as well as having resources themselves to keep conversation going with their student. I could also post homework and test reminders.

Science includes communication which is often an overlooked component in the subject. Blogging offers a great way to introduce students to this facet of being a scientist. They should learn to share ideas and that it is ok to disagree with each other in the proper way.

My biggest hold back at this point is my student audience. I work against two potential barriers. One being that my students are in middle school and may not yet have access to the computer/Internet. The second being that working with low-socioeconomic students means that resources just may not be available. I do not have a permanent class set of technology that would allow us to use this tool more frequently. Even if I did have a class set for daily in class use - that defeats the goal of having engagement with science outside of class. These are obstacles I am still working on - any suggestions?

First Post

My name is Lydia Zeller and I am working on a masters in secondary science education. This blog is part of a technology course I am taking on different ways to use technology in education. I can be reached at: lzeller@vols.utk.edu