Study guides made by student groups for themselves and peers:
Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use, contributed by students
The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments, projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
Products of research projects, especially collaborative group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc. Remember that the products do not have to be simply writing. They can include computer files, images, videos, etc.
An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the non-school world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism, entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review information for important concepts throughout the year, prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam. Students add to it throughout the year and even from year to year.
An “everything I needed to know I learned in Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over into the “real world.”
A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study: Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see to concepts learned before they left.
An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions) wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,” the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic. Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the teacher. This would also depend on whether you have consistent computer access on a daily basis.
Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects, but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - Use a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. Save weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as you are writing. Link the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - Example: to use a Wiki as part of a music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and opinions about different styles of music and how they are related to each other. You could then try to incorporate this project into one of the choir concerts to show that learning about music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument.
Collaboration Between Teachers - using a wiki with other teachers to teach collaboratively. Teachers could work together creating lesson plans, track how the lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Literature Circles often read the same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel.
Students can post a lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of important information beyond the classroom
Individual assessment projects
Students can collaborate together to generate a product/project/assignment
Teachers can share information with their peers and peers can add to it
Course Syllabus: A syllabus wiki will allow you to link directly to other online resources-- your COD homepage, your email address, College documents, and more. Because you're using a wiki, rather than a static html webpage, you can make changes quickly and easily as the need arises.
