As a middle school computer teacher, I felt it was about time to get some experience using wikis. I know that many of my students use them already, so this is a way that I can potentially reach some of them in a new way.
I started off by creating my Wikispaces account, which was free for a teacher! You are given all of the features that only a premium user would normally have access to. This is awesome and saves you a lot of money as well!
Next, I set up the preferences for my wiki.
I gave it a name that would be memorable for my students, and I made sure I set it to private so that only members that I choose can view and change it.
Later on, I will be adding my students as members of the wiki and adding their accounts by using an Excel spreadsheet. This is a very convenient feature that will allow me excellent control over this aspect of the wiki.
Then, I created a few new pages for my wiki to add some navigation. I added a page for my 7th and 5th grade classes and one for my computer fair students.
After adding some pages, I made some minor changes to the look and feel of the wiki. As it grows, I plan to do some more advanced designing.
Another great feature of having a wiki is that I can post links and files for my students to easily access in school and at home, or wherever they are at for that matter. On the Computer Fair page, I added some links for the students. As this progresses, I will also add files (permission forms, etc.), links to tutorials, and samples of other projects. This will be a great resource for these students. For my 5th and 7th grade classes, I will likely keep it updated with samples, work files, and other resources that they will need for class projects and activities.
Discussion is an important part of learning, and I am hoping that the discussion pages on this wiki will help our class discussions evolve from what they currently are (getting to hear from social students during class time) into something more open and permanent.
I know that I am a computer teacher and that this type of Web 2.0 tool will be easy to adapt to my curriculum, but I also think that teachers of any subject could find amazing uses for class wikis. From posting homework and assignments to creating useful links and discussions, wikis hold great potential for educators looking to expand a bit further into the technological realm. Just how much potential will all depend on the teacher, and how he or she will utilize it.
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