Using Wikis in the Classroom

Before you can launch students on a group project involving wikis, you obviously need to explain what wikis are and their basic functionality. Students can get a quick grasp of the basics of wikis by watching this video:



And, a good article from Information Week explains How to Use Wikis for Business. If you have students watch the video and read this article before class, you can get them up to speed on the idea of wikis pretty quickly.

Naturally, the students will need a free wiki site to use for any wiki project you assign. Two of my favorites are Wikispaces and PBwiki. They are both very straightforward and easy to use but currently PBwiki has a slicker feature set.

Wikis are obviously great for group projects because of their collaborative aspects. Here are a few approaches you could take:

1) Student Study Guide - Have the students create and edit pages that provide a study guide for each chapter (or topic) you cover in class. This requires explaining concepts in their own words which reinforces learning. And this type of wiki can act as a repository of knowledge that next semester's students could update and expand.
2) Wiki Moderator - Have a student create and moderate a page (that other students update) for a week. The page should cover one topic from the current course content and aim to provide a comprehensive summary of the topic.
3) Battling Business Units (with apologies to Dilbert) - Have competing groups create wiki pages on the same topic. Then assign one group each week to review all the pages on that topic and combine them into one comprehensive (definitive?) resource.

And if you need some inspiration for projects or additional insight for students, check out the wiki resources below.

42 Ways to Use Wikis - Want to get started but need some inspiration?

Using Wikis with K-12 Students - Works for college students too!

GrowYourWiki - A blog site that provides excellent ideas about growing the community that is participating in your wiki.

Weblogg-ed Presentation Links - Even more info on wikis.