A classroom wiki? Yes I can!

The word wiki, just like blog, tag, and tweet, has entered into the vernacular of just about every individual under the age of 30.  However, these words and their corresponding actions or locations have not necessarily been integrating into the classroom.  Many colleges have embraced the notion of professional learning communities through the use of wikis, but in many K-12 educational settings, you have not seem the same type of love given to what can be an amazing tool!

The site TeachersFirst.com has an excellent, interactive article "Wiki Walk-Through" that lays out clearly what a wiki is and how it is applicable in the educational realm.  I wanted to include a few excellent points that this article made about the benefits of wikis:



For some of us who have used wikis before, and to an extent blogs, we understand how these benefits can definitely be true.  However, so many educators have not yet merged these sites into the classroom.  I know that has been the case so far in my classroom, I am ashamed to admit.  I believe the reasons for not integrating fall under the following categories: lack of knowledge, lack of resources, and lack of time.  Personally, my reasons for not integrating wikis into my classrooms yet fall under all three of these categories.  However, two of the reasons have recently been remedied: lack of knowledge and lack of resources.

Lack of knowledge: This class has helped to answer a number of my questions about wikis, especially the how to create, share, and limit editors.  While I have always understood the principle of a wiki, I had not put it into personal practice prior to this class. This is something I will definitely be changing, and soon (of course after consulting with our school's technology master and getting administrative approval).

Lack of resources: The high school that I teach at does not have a 1 to 1 initiative in regards to students and technological devices (whether that is an iPad, laptop, or desktop).  However, through grants, we recently acquired 4 iPad carts and 2 laptop carts that can be checked out for a day or more to a teacher's classroom.  I am hoping that the laptop carts will be something that we can use in my classroom on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to work on a classroom wiki.  My initial thoughts are that the wiki will include an editable vocabulary list, art history information, and artist information that the students (and I) can add to and edit throughout the semester.  I will try to start small this fall and go from there!  You can't learn to swim until you get your feet wet.