Using Wikis in the Classroom
Martha Bogart & Ruth Block
Cooperating School Districts
1460 Craig Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63146
http://csd.org
What is a Wiki?
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A piece of software
Like a word document online
A page anyone can edit; a website in which content can
be created and edited by a community of users
Best example is Wikipedia.org
Strength of the wiki often dependent on the strength of
the community
Invented in 1995 by Ward Cunningham to facilitate
online collaboration about programming and design best
practices.
Evolved by the early 2000’s into a way to facilitate all
kinds of online collaboration.
How the Wiki Got Its Name
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Wiki is the Hawaiian word meaning
“quick”, “fast”, or “to hasten”.
Wiki (according to UIC Prof. Steve Jones)
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Web-based
Interactive
Kollaborative (collaborative)
Iterative
Wiki is sometimes interpreted as the
backronym for “What I Know Is”, which
describes the knowledge contribution,
storage and exchange function.
Why a Wiki?
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Group can collaborate on documents
Incredibly easy to add content including
hyperlinks, styled text, pictures, audio,
video, etc.
Can organize by categories
Searchable
Huge potential for building community
Yes but can I learn to use it?
You can learn to use a wiki in 30-60 min.
There are several free sources for wikis.
•wikihost.org
•free-wiki-hosting.com
•wikicities.com
•educational.blogs.com
•duckcomputing.com
•pbwiki.com
•wikispaces.com
•Seedwiki.com
Wikis as Information Sources
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Make excellent teaching tools
Can replace class handouts
Extend the reach of the teacher/school
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Make the job of the teacher easier
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Easy to add and edit content
Make information and knowledge more
accessible
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Promote sources
Teach research skills
Content is more timely
Have potential for contributing to the
academic learning community
Wikis as Information Sources
Nature magazine carried out an expert-led
investigation of Wikipedia comparing it to
Britannica.
“The exercise revealed numerous errors in
both encyclopedias, but among 42 entries
tested, the difference in accuracy was not
particularly great: the average science entry
in Wikipedia contained around four
inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.”
(Giles, 2005, 1)
Wikis as Information Sources
University of Buffalo professor Alex Havelis
created 13 errors on various posts of
Wikipedia. All were fixed within a couple of
hours.
During the tsunami, Wikipedia was called
“the most comprehensive source
on the web.”
(Richardson, 2005,2)
Collaborative Authoring
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Esquire article about Wikipedia
Written collaboratively using Wikipedia
The article was edited 224 times in the
first 24 hours after it was first posted,
and another 149 times in the next 24
hours.
The final draft, which was locked on
Sept. 23 to protect it from further edits,
reflects the efforts of the many users
who worked on it.
Wikipedia:
Wikipedia is:
 A free encyclopedia
 Multilingual
 Web-based
 Written collaboratively by volunteers
Most articles can be changed by anyone
Wikipedia has more than 3,210,000
articles
Wikipedia
Wikipedia Example
Wikijunior
Wikijunior Example
Uses for a Wiki
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Use a wiki for your family’s holiday lists
“Instead of sending around 83,259,325
emails to see what your family wants for
Christmas, use a wiki instead. Everyone
can put what they want and see what
other people want. Set one up at
http://www.pbwiki.com (takes 10
seconds) and even Grandma will be able
to use it. We promise.”
More Uses for a Wiki
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100 things to do before you die
The world’s largest “How-To” manual –
wikiHow
Things to do in Seattle
World-wide travel guide – wikitravel.org
All about the flu – Flu Wiki
Wikis as Professional Tools for
Teachers
Wikis support collaborative
projects by:
 Teachers
 School board members
 Schools
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Wikis in Elementary and Middle
Schools
Wikis in upper elementary school have been
used for collaborative writing:
 Class newspaper
 Story telling
 Poetry
 Correcting teacher samples of writing
 Classroom wikipedia
Other ideas for wikis:
 Brainstorming
 Group work
Example of Wiki in School
Buckman Arts Magnet Elementary
School
Sample for First Grade
How might students use wikis?
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As information sources
As collaborative tools for group
work
As an authentic reason to write and
read
As a way to publish and share work
Wiki Challenges
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Getting others to contribute
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Faculty, students, parents
More content = more maintenance
Maintaining organization and structure with
growth of content
Difficult to see new content
Spam, Spam, and more Spam
Wikis are usually open to anyone, and “if anyone
can edit my text, anyone can ruin my text” (not
so, since changes are logged, authors are
notified, pages are easily restored – no challenge
to hackers).
Authority is unclear – who “owns” a collaborative
document?
Wiki openness is at odds with typical work habits
The Future of Wikis
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Working in teams is increasingly
common in many fields
Knowledge management is
increasingly useful
Education benefits from
collaboration and interaction
Wiki tools are being planned for
word processors, and even for
operating systems