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?