More Fun with Wikis

Collaboration, community and the creation of knowledge as a group are three fundamental elements of wikis that help foster their success.  As this week went by, I had the chance to explore and discover on my own why wikis in education are becoming increasingly popular.  Students are able to contribute their knowledge and understanding on a larger scale and to a larger audience, which can be a really neat experience for them.  One way to introduce students to the world of collaboration is by using a site like Wikispaces to create book reviews.  Wikispaces allows students to be more creative with their work.  Instead of typing out and posting a regular text opinion, students can use videos, photos and links to supporting sites, for instance a link to the author's Web page, to bring more color and life to the book they are reviewing.  The audience can be exposed to more information, and can therefore decide if a certain book really meets their interest. 

During my research I also came across an idea that I think can help enhance the use of Wikipedia in the classroom.  This idea is WikiTube.  WikiTube is a Chrome extension that adds YouTube videos to Wikipedia pages.  Once you install it, anytime you open a Wikipedia page videos will automatically be embedded at the top of each site.  Even though teachers are hesitant in allowing their students to use the data they find on Wikipedia for their projects or reports, WikiTube offers quick and easy access to videos that may be useful to show during class presentations.  A step is essentially eliminated for students. They no longer have to search for an appropriate and interesting video because WikiTube picks out the most relevant videos available on YouTube for them.

As I mentioned earlier this week, there is more to wikis than one may think.  The goal is to educate ourselves better about its possibilities so that we may use them with our students.