Educational+Uses+of+Wikis

Educational Advantages of Wikis:

 * Allows students the opportunity to become creators and collaborators rather than just consumers of information
 * Energizes reluctant learners
 * High interest and engaging
 * Encourages authentic learning
 * Requires higher order thinking skills
 * May incorporate multiple forms of media such as images, video, and animation
 * Allows students to collaborate from any location with an internet connection
 * Potential for interaction with students from other countries and cultures
 * Offers multiple options for privacy: may be public, protected, or private depending upon the purpose of the wiki
 * Discussion and comment tools provide the opportunity for frequent feedback, connections, and assessment
 * History functions allow additions and changes to be tracked and monitored which easily allows teachers to assess the contributions of students
 * Fosters collaborative learning within classes, between classes, among schools, with parents, and with communities
 * Sites offer free services without advertisements such as wikispaces.com
 * Useful as a research tool that can guide students towards reliable sources and as a presentation tool for their information
 * Is an ongoing learning tool that can continue even after a project "ends"
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 29px;">Encourages revision and continuous improvement

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 25px;">Possible Concerns:

 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Students will need to be taught social and ethical conduct for the internet
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px;">Content does not need to be "teacher approved" prior to posting; however, history functions allow teachers to monitor contributions
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px;">Students can change the work of others and must be able to support why the changes were made
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px;">Wikis do not have spell checking features at this time