After discovering a few years ago how much easier maintaining a wiki at wikispaces was compared to managing the webpage provided by the school district, I have relied on my wiki to provide students with class information that is up to date with course content. I am in the process of making a new wiki for my biology course, since my other wiki was aptly named "Solbergsphyscience" for my physical science course.
For those just venturing into the use of wikis, their application and use in the classroom is awesome. Students can set up a username to gain access to edit pages, send messages, and start a discussion board. I always like to point out that as the "administrator", I am privy to who edits what content, when, and have never had any inappropriate edits that would seem humorous to the the average 9th grader. :) The wiki also allows for RSS feeds to science articles, which means there are updated articles that I don't have to worry about updating each week. I've also used the wiki to post links to articles or websites to be used during class to make the process more efficient for students.
I am open to the use of blogging in the classroom, I just struggle a bit with how to manage it. Despite the wonders of google reader, I think it would be difficult to monitor all posts and comments for 100+ students if each had an individual blog. However, I could see including a concept driven "blog spot" within an existing wiki. This is something I am excited to work into my teaching, I will just have to iron out the details to make it work in my classroom.
It is good to hear your experiences with wikis and how well they have worked in your classroom. I see how it would be much easier to control and edit the students comments on the wiki. I too have about 100 students and I would have a difficult time keeping up with that many blogs and comments. I will continue to think about ways that I wold use a blog or wiki in my classroom.
ReplyDeletei think i am going to use your idea of a concept-driven "blog spot" within an existing wiki. it might make the reading and monitoring of students' blogs less unnwieldy. thanks!
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