A brief lesson in Wikis
Researched and presented
by Tessa Huftalin and
Sabrina Glaza
Some points to be covered:
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What is a wiki? Does anyone know?
Derivation of the term “wiki”
Brief history of wikis
How can we effectively use wikis as
educators?
What is a Wiki?!
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A wiki is a tool for collaboration, information sharing
and knowledge/content management
More technically, A “wiki” is a type of software to run
a website that anyone can edit
Add example page of our class wiki to
this slide
The term “wiki” means
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The actual term wiki is a Hawaiian word which
means quick.
This is fitting because a wiki page allows users to
quickly edit, add, or remove content and simply click
save, publishing it.
How wikis came to be
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Wikis were developed by American computer
programmer Ward Cunningham in 1995
He created the software known as Wikiwikiweb, the
first user-editable website
Cunningham created the software because he
sought a way to make the exchange of ideas
between programmers easier.
The growth of the wiki community
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Though wikis were initially created for computer
programmers and the exchange of their ideas, they
were soon discovered by others to be a way to easily
share content and ideas.
Because of this, other wiki engines were created and
then smaller wiki communities began to populate
and grow.
Wikipedia: an electronic encyclopedia
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Wikipedia is perhaps the best known wiki engine.
The development of wikis resulted in the use wiki
technology as a basis for an electronic encyclopedia:
Wikipedia was launched in January 2001
However, because anyone can edit its content,
Wikipedia is not considered a veritable source.
Creating a new wiki
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http://www.wikispaces.asu.edu/
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For this example, we used ASU’s wikispace.
Short Youtube video describing wikis
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmByB0sI
Pog
Reasons to use a wiki as an
educational tool
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Fast
Easy
Findable, easily accessible, and searchable online
Can easily collaborate with all users, including other
teachers, past students, and parents of students
Encourages users to contribute their own input and
information
Eliminates need for paperwork
How can we use this innovation in the
classroom to benefit our students?
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Class Resources - Publish class notes, PowerPoint lectures,
schedules and policies; show off examples of great student work.
Group Projects - Build collaborative pages, start discussions and
encourage comments.
Parent Outreach - Keep parents involved. Post assignments, key
dates and volunteer lists. All available at home, from work, or
anywhere.
Student Portfolios - Give students their own page to post content,
upload homework, and share their work.
Expand Horizons - Share and interact with other classrooms or
groups, across town or around the world.
Ex. Of a student-centered wiki or class
wiki
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http://kchijefferson.pbworks.com/FrontPage
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What it is: A teacher’s classroom wiki where she
can communicate and share information to help her
students in their classrooms as well as the parents of
these students
How you use it: The wiki is used as an educational
tool for this teacher to share classroom events,
homework, and schedules with her students and the
parents.
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How can we use wikis to aid in our
success as educators?
Networking: Teachers around the world can
share experiences, resources, and
presentation materials
 Easy: collaboration in seconds
 Trial and Error: bounce ideas off
of people in the same career field
or who teach the same subject
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Even more benefits for teachers:
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Keep posted on announcements from school
Staff giving praises to other staff members
Surveys and forms for the teachers
Teachers can upload documents, assignments,
and additional information
Enhance professional development
Teachers can share lesson plans
Discuss the lesson plans using discussion
If students submit papers teachers can check for
plagiarism
Ex. Of a peer-centered wiki for
teachers
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http://theteacherslounge.wetpaint.com/
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What it is: A teacher-based peer wiki where
teachers, grades K-5, can communicate, and share
information to help them in their classrooms
How you use it: The wiki is used as a social
network for teachers to share classroom relevant
information. The wiki allows teachers to share and
learn from one another.
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Applying this innovation in the future
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In your career as an educator, you might decide that
it would be a helpful resource to create a wiki for
students, parents, fellow teachers, and even yourself
to organize and collaborate information.
To prepare for this, it might be helpful to join a wiki
community focused on education right now, just to
get a feel of what your wiki should look like.
A helpful link: http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/
which is an educational community where 3000
educators are working together to learn and share
ideas about using wikis in the classroom.
Request access to the class wiki
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All students need access to the class wiki to
add their own educational innovation projects
Our workspace, securely hosted on
PBworks, is called nboykininnovationsf09
Blackboard>TEL 311>Class wiki> request
access to this workspace
Professor Boykin will approve students
Creating a new wiki: Instructions and
Hands-on Demo
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Please allow for a brief demonstration on
creating a wiki and editing/saving/publishing
In review:
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Wikis are a great resource for teachers and it
is very easy to learn to navigate a wikispace
and make it your own.
Wikis allow for collaboration and
brainstorming and contributing ideas or
information, all of which make this innovation
a valuable in the realm of education.
In review:
Thoughts, questions, comments from the class?
Random tidbit of information to close with: If this classroom was a
wiki, we could conduct a class discussion on the actual wiki page,
through a chat application. Many wiki community members do
this to instantly communicate their ideas.
The end
Thank you for your time and hopefully
you all will implement wikis into your own
educational careers and use them to aid
in your success as a teacher!
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