Ways to Use a Wiki

We have been developing our wikis in this class, and for some, it is a new experience while, for others, it is not. I fall somewhere in the middle. Wikis and Blogs are not new to me and I visit many of them for ideas or inspiration. I have not, however, contributed to as many as I visit as a "spectator."

Just this week, however, I discovered a practical application for using a wiki in my classroom. Basically, instead of having my Digital Media Class teams keep a noteboook of their ideas and plans for their daily morning broadcast, I provided a wiki space (within Bb) for them to use for planning. The advantage is that each group can visit eachother's pages on the wiki and leave comments or suggestions on the ideas posted. They can also share helpful links.

One of the blogs I do read frequently is "Moving at the Speed of Creativity," written by Wesley Fryer and, in a timely fashion, he posted a list this week of "Ways to Use a Wiki." In his blog post, he included the list below:

1. Connect with parents through publishing student work
2. Homework groups with kids (ask questions)
3. Share lesson plans with other teachers and links
4. In lieu of a faculty meeting
5. Write a new school song collaboratively, brainstorm ideas
6. Put websites for articles students need to read, and then discuss it together online
7. Post homework assignments and makeup work for absent students
8. Schedules and calendars
9. Collaborative projects with other classrooms in the US or outside
10. Book reviews!
11. Science journaling
12. Study guides for the test
13. Science fair presentations
14. Collaboration to plan fundraisers or other activities
15. Diary of a science experiment
16. Literature response podcasting or video publishing
17. Book talks
18. Literature circle
19. RSS feeds for kid friendly publishing (let parents subscribe to updates)
20. Posting projects