A wiki is a type of website that allows visitors themselves to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration.( wikipedia)
A wiki is a database of pages which visitors can edit live."
The building blocks of wikis are the "comments" from visitors.
You can generally edit a page in real time, search the wiki's content, and view updates since your last visit. In a "moderated wiki," wiki owners review comments before addition to the main body of a topic.(wiki.com 2008)
The most common of all the wikis is wikipedia- ( the evil arch enemy of high school teachers)
Because wikis can be changed by anyone, most times information gained from wikis such as wikipedia can be misleading or incorrect.When using these sites a person should not take all information to be correct as there are some people out there who deliberately or maybe unintentionally change the content and information of a wiki page.
Apart from wikipedia and prior to my e-learning tute I had had little or no experience of wikis and until now had not seen the educational possibilities of a wiki.
In 1999, the world Wide Web inventor sir Tim Berners-Lee looked back on the previous decade and lamented: "I wanted the web to be what I call an interactive space where eveybody can edit."
with this said using ICTs such as wikis can play a big part in the classroom
Using Wikis in the classroom-
Wikis encourage group social interaction and collaboration and support asynchronous communication allowing users to contribute at a time, and from a place that suits them. Many students find that their learning is most effective when they are actively involved in the construction of their knowledge. (DET 2010)
Although wikis are able to be changed by other people, this is not necessarily a disadvantage.
This site below shows how a teacher and his Grade 3-4 students at Bellaire Primary School in Geelong, Victoria, used a wiki to actively engage his students by joint constructing a choose your own adventure story page.
http://terrythetennisball.wikispaces.com/
When thinking about using wikis in my classroom, it leads me to consider the whole class profile of my students.
- what age my students are and their interests and hobbies at this time.
- what does the curriculum inform myself to do in each KLA.
- what units are we currently exploring
- if I do use a wiki how can I effectivly use this tool to my advantage
- how much time should be invested in the wiki
Another tool that we learnt about in the tute was Weebly.
Weebly....
Being very similar to wikis, weebly is an online program the helps you create your own website! it boasts "A Variety of Content Elements,If you can imagine it, you can do it with Weebly. Add pictures, videos, music and audio, documents, maps, and photo galleries. Sell products, accept online bookings, create a contact form, or arrange your pages in multiple columns. Drag on slideshows, files, forums, games, RSS feeds, or any other HTML embed code -- all by simply dragging and dropping.
Powerful Blogging FeaturesPost your thoughts and receive comments using our super slick blogging features. Weebly supports an unlimited number of blogs within your website, with full comment moderation features allowing an open, moderated, or closed conversation. "
This site has a lot of potential for interactive and engaging learning experiences.Because so many things can be added to your page and as a LM requires only a minimal amount of time to create this tool is a fun and creative learning tool to have under your belt.the learning possibilities is limitless as you are only limited to your imagination.
References-
wiki.com (2008) wiki.com-viewed 12/8/10 : http://www.wiki.com/whatiswiki.htm
Bellaire Primary school (2006) Terry the Tennis ball choose your own adventure wiki- viewed 12/8/10:http://terrythetennisball.wikispaces.com/
weebly,Inc (2010) weebly-viewed 7/8/10 : http://www.weebly.com/
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