Wiki+Workshop+4

Wiki Workshop Session 4
I started this series of workshops talking about Web 2.0 and I want to finish with Web 2.0. Wikis are just one of dozens of new tools educators and students need to use so that we can move the educational process beyond the traditional classroom. The classroom of the 21st Century has no boundaries, which is the theme of [|David Warlick's keynote] at this years K12Online Conference. A wiki is a great way to begin pushing the boundaries of your classroom.

Structure of your wiki
Now that we have a wiki and some members lets start building your wiki. So after looking at other educational wikis and thinking about what you want to do we need to identify the purpose of your wiki. There are many considerations to decide when designing your wiki, the good news is that because wikis are so flexible you can change your mind and the wiki when you want. Let's take a close look at a few educational wikis to help us get ideas for our own.
 * 1) Will it be a basic information sharing wiki? Information about your classroom/program with a few links. May be a list of activities the students are engaged in. Will you have a page with FAQ's? How about a continuing up-dated list of resources for students, staff, parents, school districts.
 * 2) Will your wiki include two or more pages? Will the students have access to the wiki so they can post? Will you list assignments and classroom activities?
 * 3) Will you have a wiki that the students are expected to be actively involved with? Is it more than a classroom web site? Are members making frequent posts and edits? Is the wiki an extension of your classroom?
 * 4) Will you have include images and videos?
 * 5) Will your wiki show case student work?
 * 1) [|Code Blue] is a 6th grade wiki about health and biology. I have watched it over the last year and it keeps getting better and better. The students and teacher must have had a lot of fun creating the wiki.
 * 2) Ubdeducators is the wiki for Understanding by Design. UbD is a method for planning using backward design -- visualizing the end result (what students should understand) before selecting learning activities.
 * 3) [|P.S. 84 the Steinway School] in NYC has a very active wiki community.
 * 4) [|Westwood Schools] computer science wiki has been built with student input
 * 5) [|Beauty wiki] - post about makeup and what is beauty.