Week 7, Thing 16

I became aware of using wikis for educational purposes last spring. We have a new administrative team and one of our main goals for this year is collaboration (we are a low performing school in a low income area with obvious test score problems). Wikis just seem like an obvious tool to aide in this endeavor.

Fourteen of our staff attended the Model School Conference in Washington D.C. in June. At the end of the conference we met to debrief and discuss how we would share our information and insight with staff members in the fall. We left with a vague plan of reporting out at the first staff meeting, then going more in-depth at subsequent staff meetings, but it didn't feel quite right. I think the missing component is the wiki. We can all contribute to the wiki; those that of us that attended the same sessions can just edit and add on to what someone else has written. We can provide links. Those of us that attended the conference can then have all the information together and we can share with everyone else who is interested.

At the end of the conference, my principal made a profound statement - he said that maybe our test scores aren't improving because we're focusing on test scores. I think this is a belief that many of us have. The Web 2.0 technologies can help us focus on student engagement and learning which is what will improve education.

As I looked at various wikis, I found lots of ideas that I think would work well and be easy to implement. I have been a proponent of literature circles for years (I had great success with them when I was a 6th grade teacher, but I haven't been able to convince my teachers - I think it goes back to test scores and pacing guides). I looked at an example of adding a wiki as a component to the literature circles and I think that's a great idea. Of course, having students and staff write book reviews is an obvious use. I also like the idea of using wikis to take notes and for group research.

I also read "Ten Reasons Why Your Next Pathfinder Should be a Wiki" by Joyce Valenza. This article puts it all together for me and is applicable for uses other than pathfinders. The idea of having everything in one place with whatever links and uploads you need is wonderful. The idea that the teacher(s) and I can both add content is actually liberating. I can see each grade level subject team creating a wiki for the year with each member contributing according the his/her strengths.

Now on to creating a wiki for our June conference...