After reading chapter 4 in our text, I feel like I have a better understanding on how Wiki sites work and the effect Wikipedia has on research. I will admit that before reading this chapter, I had no clue. I was familiar with the Wikipedia site but was always told not to use it as a credited source. I think that it could be used for quick information that may lead to further scholarly research, but I’m not sure if the academic world is ready to accept Wikipedia as a reliable source even though many students already use it for their research.
As a collaboration tool, I think it has a lot to offer. The ability to add and edit information provides students with an opportunity to work together to enhance their group projects. One of my favorite examples in this chapter describes how a high school teacher in Georgia used a Wiki site to connect her students with a class in Bangladesh. She labeled this as her “Flat Classroom” project, which relates to Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat concept. During this project, the students were able to work together in the same environment even though they were in different countries. This type of environment allows students to work on projects simultaneously and it offers the them the ability to share their work with a vast audience. I think any technology that can bring students from other countries together to work simultaneously is awesome and worth trying in the classroom.
There’s definitely a range of possibilities that wikis present…most of which involve moving students into roles as writers, readers, editors, and content deciders for a real purpose and audience (strangely, a lot of traditional schoolwork misses out on the “real” factor and so comes across as busywork or just “doing school”).
dc
Comment by dcrovitz — June 16, 2009 @ 9:21 am |