Blog 5: How to use Wikis in the Classroom

Wikipedia logo

A wiki is a web site which allows visitors to participate in creating or editing the actual web site without any special technical knowledge or tools. Since visitors can participate in this website through editing, a wiki is constantly "under revision." An example of a wiki, is Wiki-pedia which is an online encyclopedia which has millions of authors and editors. People all over use wikis in order to collaborate on projects and ideas. Some jobs that use wikis include researchers, travel journals, clubs, chefs writing books, and many more. Wikis are right now most common in the college level. The most potential of wikis, "lies in student participation in the ongoing creation and evolution of the wiki."

One way a wiki can be used in an early childhood classroom is to collaborate on book reviews or author studies. Another is to create a family twadition-wiki. This is where elementary students could share their family's traditions of preparing for a holiday such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays,

etc. then compare this family's traditions with other cultures as they read and learn about them. Finally, a wiki can be used to take a virtual tour of the school and for the children to study their community throughout the elementary grades. I will use wiki's in my future early childhood education classroom. I believe that wiki's could be a great tool for presenting ideas to parents in my classroom. As a teacher I want to have high parent involvement in my classroom. I would use a wiki to post about a topic or idea that we would be learning in the next few weeks, then a parents can add other ideas, activities, or just general information in order to participate with their children's education as well as the classroom.