Read/Write Web- Wikis

 Using wikis as a collaborative tool

• Wiki is a collaborative tool that allows students to contribute and modify one or more pages of course related materials 
• one of the primary reasons to use wikis is because they help your students reach Bloom's higher order skills, things like creating and evaluating
• Wikis achieve many teaching practices including cooperation between students,active learning,prompt feedback from peers, time on task, the articulation of high expectations and support for diverse talents.
  

 

Challenges of wikis in schools

• common concerns among instructors new to wikis (as with blogs) is how to evaluate student's work  
• Students respond poorly to badly designed assignments as their knowledge around this is still growing.
• Assignment requires participation as all input and contributions are captured and owned by the person who contributed the work
• the assignment is moving and not closed,it cannot be completed without full participation from everyone and cannot stand alone outside the wiki.
  

Using wikis for classroom instruction 

• Set clear rules and expectations
• Let the students know what you expect and how students work will be evaluated 
• include detailed instructions
• give authentic assignments
• clearly define students' role and activities
• Closely monitor students' activities
• ask students to review and comment on each other's entries