School Wikis

This morning I am investigating the use of wikis in the schools. Wikis are websites that let visitors become participants. In my media/technology class we are using a PBworks wiki for class discussion, assignments and follow-through. As students, we needed to be invited to join this wiki. PBworks seems to be more suited for high-school and college educational purposes. Another type of wiki that is more popular in K-12 education is Wikispaces.

As a fifth grade teacher and prospective elementary school librarian, Wikispaces would probably suit my purposes better. I viewed several wikis set up in elementary and middle schools; their sites included class calendars with hyperlinks, listings of safe web 2.0 tools with hyperlinks, parent-interest sites and virtual libraries. Other uses for a school wiki include student-generated study guides, discussion boards for lesson topics, and collections of research projects. As an educator, the first question before establishing a wiki is how it will be used to enhance instruction in your classroom or library. If inter-active student collaboration is intended, then a wiki is preferable to setting up a classroom blog or teacher's webpage on Google.docs. However, the security considerations of a school wiki are weightier than a classroom blog or webpage. A teacher/librarian must decide who may join and edit the wiki and who will moderate for appropriateness. In an elementary school there may also be district policy restrictions on the use of student names, photos, and security settings. District filters often set up a firewall preventing the use of wikis on district licenced computers.

Currently I have a google.docs page for my classroom which informs parents and teachers of calendar events, curriculum pointers, and featured sites. Owing to the many security issues surrounding wikis in an elementary school setting, this is the teacher/student/parent communication tool I will probably continue to use for now.