Wikis

I found the article about Wikis interesting and brief. In my opinion, this is the college kid's ideal article type. I also enjoy the use of KWLS charts, as they seem to be an effective way to elicit feedback in my students. I have since employed KWLS charts in several of the classes I work with, and the kids seem to like it. I tend to let them free-form their answers, though. If they respond better in drawing than in writing, I allow it.

The most interesting part of the article was, I thought, the discussion of the genesis of wikis as a way for scientists to share new information quickly.I had no idea! This is the same reason we use our resource wikis. However, I really do not like the resource wikis. I find them difficult to navigate at best and frustrating at worst. I have never liked group projects, especially when communication beteween us is so difficult and it seems we have so different rules placed on us.

In terms of how I might go about using wikis in the classroom, I think it would be a neat way for the students to create a class-wide timeline of events for American history. This would work really well using the JIGSAW method. For example, every student could take and few years and research them, then add their information to the wiki. It would also work well in geography class or world civilizations, and my class could create a wiki for each country or region we study. Finally, it might be a good way to study original documents, with students constantly asking and answering each other's questions.