Thing #16: Wikis

I found several wikis full of information to help through almost anything. Some of the ones I found most useful were: 1)TechLibrary – This wiki is full of lessons for all areas of literacy and all grade levels. Anyone can register to this wiki and edit it by adding lessons to it. 2)Teacher-Librarian – This wiki offers resources and information to librarians. It includes topics such as lessons for teaching, tips and strategies for collaboration, book lists and reviews, and links to many other resources. 3) David V. Loertscher’s AASL Presentation-Strategies to make teaching and collaboration more meaningful. It contains his handout and discussions from his 2007 presentation. The 3 websites to build wikis included PBWiki, Wikispaces, and Wetpaints.
Wikis can be used to collaborate with teachers. After the initial meeting where we decide to collaborate and begin planning, we can use a wiki to continue planning, get other people involved, gather materials, and adjust details. Also for teachers, I thought about creating a wiki where teachers can comment, tell anecdotes, and/or ask questions about their experiences with material learned at a workshop. I can think of a thousand times when I could have used something like this because I don’t think of many questions at the training; I have them in my classroom after I tried the materials/strategies. Another use was to create a wiki with a summary of a class discussion and have students add more comments as they continue to read about the topic, do their homework, and research.