Thing 8: Wiki's

A wiki is a website that lets anyone become a member. You can create or edit the actual sites information. It is a living collaboration whose purpose is the sharing of the creative process. Inside a school or educational setting wikis are being used as a communication tool.

I thought since my little ones are only 5 and 6 this could be a wonderful way to bring together the community of our school. Each grade could have their own wiki giving advice from classroom techniques to activities and projects. As a team we would be able to see, edit and compromise together new ideas to share and publish.

On the TeachersFirst website if gave some great information on how to use wikis in an elementary setting of young students:

Wiki ideas for younger students (elementary):

·         An annotated virtual library: listings and commentary on independent reading students have done throughout the year

·         Collaborative book reviews or author studies

·         An elementary class “encyclopedia” on a special topic, such as explorers or state history – to be continued and added to each year!

·         A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades

·         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 Twaditionwiki- 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 Where is Wanda wiki: a wiki version of the ever-favorite Flat Stanley project. Have each Wanda host post on the wiki, including the picture they take with Wanda during her visit. Even better: keep an ongoing Google Earth placemarker file to add geographic visuals to Wanda’s wonderful wanderings as a link in the wiki. WOW! Where in the world IS Wiki Wanda?