Classroom+Uses+for+a+Wiki

What are my plans for using wikis in my classroom? I have a couple ideas. The first is to use it to do interdisciplinary work with other teachers next year. I am planning on working over the summer to write curriculum for a reading/writing workshop to be co-taught with another English teacher to all incoming students. I want to use the wiki to help connect the students. The wiki could be an online place where students can go and publish their work online, share ideas about books, post reviews of each other’s writing, find links to assignments, look up their grades, etc. Hopefully we can extend this collaboration to include at least two more content areas. Students can collaborate with other content areas to complete interdisciplinary projects. As illustrated by all the vignettes at the end of Cummins text, there is so much that can be done to turn students on to learning.

My second plan is to use the wiki to have students create online portfolios. Right now students create paper portfolios. These are neither in their possession or easy to share. It would be easy for students to put all of their work on a personal wiki once they are taught how to navigate and use the tool. In the process they would become more technologically literate and have a product to show colleges, potential employers, etc. This seems especially important because, as Sir Ken Robinson says on Ted Talks, we are to be preparing students for the future. Technology is changing all the time, and our students need to learn how to use it effectively. I don’t know now if these ideas will come to fruition, but I’ve approached the principal about presenting a proposal for how technology could be used more effectively. The page with the proposal is under construction, but if you are interested, check it out.