How+Can+I+use+a+wiki

How can I use a wiki in my classroom? The ideas listed below have been gleaned from the Internet and experience using a wiki.
 * Classroom Organization **

Everything in a classroom can be linked on the wiki. If the student creates it, they are to link it. It gives one place to organize and post and one place to send content to the teacher. > Students created a Computer Safety and Privacy wiki book, sharing important information with others. We uploaded our first video about why you should protect your identity. ** [|Getting to Know You...] (gr 3-8) **
 * Assignments: Post homework, course materials, study guides, and more.
 * Resource Collections: Organize articles, websites, videos, and other resources for students
 * Group FAQ: Students and/or teachers post and respond to questions on a given topic
 * Parent Involvement: Give parents a chance to be a part of the classroom and stay up to date on classroom news and events
 * General **
 * Lesson Summaries/ Collaborative Notes The students post notes about the lesson to the wiki. This includes vocabulary and concepts. After the initial information is posted it becomes a collaborative effort. What results is a great compendium of information about a topic that students can access from home when it is time to study.
 * Concept Introduction and Exploratory Projects
 * Dissemination of Important Classroom Information beyond the Classroom
 * Individual assessment projects
 * Online Newspaper: Create a student-published online newspaper
 * Group projects: Students work together in one place to research, outline, draft, and edit projects within the wiki
 * Peer Review: Post questions for student brainstorming, or have students post papers for peer feedback
 * Study guides made by student groups for themselves and peers: each group prepares the guide for one aspect of the unit or responsibility rotates: one unit guide per semester.
 * Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use, contributed by students (ongoing throughout the year).
 * The wiki as the organizational and intellectual epicenter of your class (see the Aristotle experiment )- wiki all assignments, projects, collaboration, rubrics, etc.
 * Products of research projects, especially collaborative group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc. Remember that the products do not have to be simply writing. They can include computer files, images, videos, etc. Creating an organizational structure for the content is an important part if the project.
 * An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the non-school world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism, entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
 * What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review information for important concepts throughout the year, prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam. Students add to it throughout the year and even from year to year.
 * An “everything I needed to know I learned in Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over into the “real world.” For example, a student might write about actually using a simple algebraic equation to figure out dimensions for cutting lumber or foamcore for a display or write about ways that her friend shows tragic hubris and is heading toward a fall.
 * A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study: Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
 * Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see to concepts learned before they left: mammals I saw on the way to Disney, geometric shapes in the Magic Kingdom, the most cost-effective lunches while traveling, etc. Remember: hotels usually have Internet access. Make the world a part of your classroom!
 * An FAQ) wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,” the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic. Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the teacher. This would also depend on whether you have consistent computer access on a daily basis.

If you are starting your wiki at the beginning of the school year or are using pseudonyms, you can establish mutual trust and verify wiki skills. Each student, using initials or a pseudonym.
 * Writes something positive or interesting about himself/herself and positive things that two classmates are good at or noted for.
 * Returns to the wiki for homework or in a later class and adds/edits the positive comments, possibly guessing the identity of the pseudonym holder, ** only IF the wiki is private! **

** Class Kudos **   As a wiki warm-up, have your students (any age) write something about an accomplishment they have made, no matter how small, as "Someone...." Examples might be: Have them go back in a few days and edit to include the initials or pseudonym in place of “someone.” Keep the Kudos page open long term for classes who need a positive place to brag. ** FAQ Page **  Start an FAQ page as a tool to get students started on the wiki. They can ask anything they want to know (within acceptable limits) Examples:
 * Someone learned to do a flip-turn.
 * Someone hiked 20 miles with his grandpa.
 * Someone finally passed a driving test.
 * What are we going to use this wiki for?
 * Will we be graded on this?
 * Why do we have to read Shakespeare?
 * Will I ever use algebra for ANYTHING?
 * Will Mr. Jones really notice if I say something mean or inappropriate?

> An elementary class “encyclopedia” on a special topic, such as explorers or state history – to be continued and added to each year! ** Science ** > > > ** Resources ** > http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/issues.cfm > Steven Wheeler University of Plymouth UK > http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-use-wikis-what-do-you-do.html > http://classblogmeister.com/index > http://www.wikispaces.com/site/privatelabel/case-study-bps >
 * Then ask for positive responses to others’ questions. Keep an FAQ page available for students struggling with material or as the guide to each unit.
 * Elementary **
 * An annotated virtual library: listings and commentary on independent reading students have done throughout the year
 * Collaborative book reviews or author studies
 * A travelogue from a field trip or NON- field trip that the class would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study: Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
 * Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific or governmental processes: how a bill becomes a law, how mountains form, etc.
 * A wiki “fan club” for you favorite author(s).
 * Family Traditions - elementary students share their family’s ways of preparing Thanksgiving dinner or celebrating birthdays (anonymously, of course) and compare them to practices in other cultures they read and learn about.
 * A Flat Stanley Project: keep an ongoing Google Earth placemarker file to add geographic visuals to Stanley's wanderings as a link in the wiki.
 * Math **
 * A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the class can collaborate on how to solve them
 * A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs. What a great way to see the different approaches to the same problem!
 * Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate places where they actually used math to solve a problem.
 * Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial or converting a decimal to a fraction.
 * Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as many ways possible: as graphics to count, as mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for example.
 * A student- made glossary of scientific terms with illustrations and definitions added by the class (using original digital photos or those from other online Creative Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate pages with detailed information would allow the main glossary list to remain reasonably short.
 * A taxonomy of living things with information about each branch as you study Biology over a full year.
 * Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a chemistry class.
 * Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in local streams, weather observations from across your state, or bird counts during migratory season. Collaborate with other schools.
 * Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific processes: how mountains form, etc.
 * A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked wiki”?).
 * Social Studies **
 * A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
 * A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
 * Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes a law, etc.
 * A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
 * A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc.
 * A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military. Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
 * A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in Verona
 * Have a page for each student where the kids could collect their work and link to joint projects.
 * could build pages dedicated to specific subjects, or projects.
 * one third grade classroom used their wiki as a tool for science exploration in a unit on sound. Groups of students kept separate pages where they could record their predictions as well as the results of their experiments. As a review of the unit, they posted what they had learned as both text and video presentations. And because this work lived on the wiki, all the students in the class, regardless of which group they worked in, had a chance to learn from their peers — and could even go back to it to study for tests!
 * A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on research students have done on the candidate positions