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Survey Says – Wikis in Schools

Source: https://mguhlin.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/wikis.gif

Recently, I asked people to share their insights into using wikis. I would certainly welcome more feedback on that since the survey provides valuable information for school districts who are using wikis. For fun, some of that information is shared in this blog entry.
Contribute Your perspective on wikis

Wondering what wiki solution is the best to use in K-12? Having explored various solutions, I feel comfortable in advising folks what wiki is the best one for K-12 schools. However, there are various solutions in actual use in K-12. 

I’m sure this summary data will change as others get a chance to contribute, especially given the number of Wikispaces users and GoogleSites users.
For many, wikis have become the easiest way to throw up a web site without the frequent commitment of updates, as expected in blogs. This makes wikis the collaboration tool for teachers and students. Of course, it can be a tool for district departments as well!

Some of the comments folks shared about wikis included the following:

Great for collaboration and for sharing writing, projects, etc. 

Wikis & blogs provide students with an opportunity to collaborate and to publish ethically and responsibly. They are able to learn that their thoughts and communication skills are quickly acceptable or non-acceptable to a digital world. They are able to compose meaningful realworld information. I call this “expanding the global database of knowledge” through their efforts to express themselves. Helen Keller once said, “Humans live to express themselves”….and she should know! 

We could not function without wikis. Great way to keep parents in the loop and present student work. Also works well for collaborative work. Easy for students to access at home and school. Note the last wiki. It’s an all junior/senior/faculty book read. Having the Wiki allows us to organize the notes for the book discussion. Everything is in one place.  

I love working in wikis, but they can be frustrating at times with editing tools. I think it takes perseverance and patience. After working in Google Docs though, I prefer collaborating synchronously and using the chat window instead of the discussion type forum in wikis. 

“Building wikis fits under
(1) Creativity and innovation and
(2) Communication and collaboration”
It is a great 21st century collaborative tool that simplifies the communicaton and sharing of information between students and classrooms.  

I maintain a Wikispace as a requirement of the Educational Technology Leadership master’s program at Lamar University. I believe wikis are powerful tools, but their use is not generally supported in the district where I am employed as an instructional technology specialist. “by officially I am thinking of the fact that they let it through the filters and even put a link to it on zenworks window if I ask  😉 

Getting folks to actually contribute can be trickier than getting them to look at it and using items from it” 

The class wiki helped me communicate with my students and parents.  Students from last year still return to the wiki! 

I just shared out district page, we have teachers using them in the classroom everyday.  We have several resource pages for each campus as well.

Some of the wiki sites shared by comment providers included the following:

I’ve also spent a lot of time working with wikis and appreciate how wonderful they are for sharing information with others.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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