Wikis are powerful collaboration tools that can be utilized in countless ways in the classroom. After the initial introduction of the concept of wikis, I think that most classroom teachers will find that students will be largely responsible for driving the content of the wiki. This is fantastic news as long as the students have been properly instructed on the intention of the content.
For my 5th graders, I plan to create a wiki that includes links for the educational websites used in the classroom. Since a large portion of my spelling homework comes from spellingcity.com, I will definitely include a link to this website on my class wiki so that students can access and even complete homework online. I will also include links to brainpop, united streaming, and funbrain. Students will be encouraged to add weblinks of their own that might be of interest to their classmates.
Students will also be able to add group and individually created slideshows, podcasts, videos, annimation, glogs and blogs to our classroom wiki. Additionally, students will be able to work collaboratively on class and group projects throughout the school year. Students will be able to create and post book reviews, helpful tips and and homework questions/help on our classroom wiki.
After students have become comfortable with our classroom wiki, I will ask that they find other wikis to follow so that my class can become connected with other learners around the globe. The future of our students' education is in collaborative global learning, so why not offer a glimpse now of what is to come.
It's great that we can just link information we want our students to see. Wikis can be a resource where a database of links can be collected.
ReplyDeleteA year long project would be very interesting to see. I'm sure students would really feel proud of their final product.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea! Do any of your links have online spelling games like hangman, boggle, scrabble, word search, etc.? Kudos to you. Spelling is a really important subject especially with our increasing dependence on spell check. Thanks for teaching our future!
ReplyDeleteLike you said there are countless ways to use a wiki. the one you listed are great for student collaboration. I like the way you are engaging your students, and I know they will like it as well.
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