Chapter 4: Wikis

This was such a great chapter because it gave me so many ideas on how to use a wiki in the classroom. First the chapter started with the author using a very powerful example of what a great tool a wiki can be. The example of the 2004 Tsunami that killed more than 175,000 people. 48 hours after the first wikipedia post, there more over 1,200 edits and more than 6,500 words. I think this is just amazing that anyone can add their findings on a website to keep others informed. These are wods of many people contributing to the website to give others the more up to date an hopefully accurate information. Seeing as how anyone can update and add information to a wiki, there are a lot of challenges with using wikis in the classroom. It is hard to know what sources to trust on a wiki, so the book suggested telling their students to use wikipedia as a starting point for research, but not as a sole resource. There may also be a chance that students come across inappropriate things on a wiki, but the cool thing that teachers can do is wikis that require a login and password system, which can make it easier to use in a classroom. One of the most common ways to use a wiki in the classroom is to create an online text that both the students and the teacher can contribute to. Students can add posts that contribute to a specific topic that would benefit the whole class. The book also discussed some very cool examples of wikis that are being used in schools. One of these examples I found to be so cool was the one where a teacher connected with a teacher in Bangladesh, and their classrooms got together to do a two week investigation. This site they created contains usful informaion such as essays, audio and video files that focus on their topic. What an amazing experience for these students! Other teachers make their classrooms' wikis to be viewed by anyone, but can only be edited by  their classroom. This is how I would most likely use a wiki in my classroom just to be safe! There are just so many possibilities in using a wiki in the classroom it is amazing. I most definately want to use a wiki in my future classroom. I think that it can teach students some very useful ideas on the internet as well as how to share their information with others. I enjoyed how the book explained how to start up a wiki so it makes it easier for teachers to start one on their own. Students work and contributions can also be monitored, which is a great tool. I never knew their were so many possibilities with wikis until I read this chapter, and now I am excited to use one in my future classroom!