Monday, May 2, 2011

Providing guidance on classroom wiki projects

A project like a wiki must come with some guidance from the teacher as to what is expected. Even Wikipedia comes with guidance: the policies and guidelines for creating Wikipedia entries. Familiarizing your students with the rules of wiki use is particularly important for first exposure. Students may not be accustomed to the give and take that collaborative work implies. You can prepare them to expect their work to be challenged and to challenge that of others in a civil, thoughtful and respectful way. Some example policies from Wikipedia follow.

• Take a neutral point of view
• Be civil to others and assume good faith
• Seek consensus in discussions
• Work toward the goal of a better-written and more comprehensive encyclopedia

When a wiki is to be used as a group project, set up the environment for success. Start with groups with diverse skill sets and diverse attitudes. They will complement and teach one another. And then tell the group what it needs to do, step by step. The guidance may be the sequence of questions for the group to consider when analyzing a text. Or the guidance may be how to comment on the creative writing of other students. Or it may be the pieces required in building a business plan. But the point is that the wiki isn’t doing the teaching. It’s only enabling a certain type of learning (collaborative learning) but the teacher must still guide the students in how the learning is to be done.

Another advantage of using wikis for classroom work is, if given the password, parents can also follow along and see what their child and his classmates are doing. Putting classroom work online, with proper protections of course, opens new opportunities for parent awareness and involvement.

Posted at 12:00 AM (permalink) 2 Comments View/Leave Comment
Keywords: wikis, collaborative learning