Wiki

= ** aaaaaaaaaaa Wiki's ** = media type="youtube" key="ZmByB0sIPog" height="395" width="616"

**What is a Wiki?** A wiki is a collaborative website. It is easy to create and edit wikis from any location as long as there is internet access. “Wiki” is Hawaiian for “quick”. This name is suitable because wikis are fast and easy to use! You can easily add links, pictures, videos, etc to a wiki adding to its information base and usefulness.

[|Wikipedia] is probably the most well known wiki site. It was created in February 2001. Anyone can write about anything they want! (This can be viewed as good and bad.) Because of this, people should be advised to check resources when using Wikipedia since anyone is allowed to post information on the site, true or false. Today, thankfully, false information is usually not posted for long before someone corrects it. Not only is it easy to add information, but you can also easily link pages using wikis. This is one of the many reasons that wikis are useful in the classroom!

=**//How to Use a Wiki in the Classroom//**= media type="youtube" key="1pR5yogCmkA" height="402" width="595"

Wikis are great resources for the classroom. Some free wikis are: [|PBWiki], [|Wikidot], [|Wiki-Site] and Wikispaces (this site). They can be used effortlessly to keep parents informed or to keep students interested in what is going on in the classroom.

**Parents** Wikis are a wonderful way to keep in touch with parents. Since you can add images, links, documents, etc to a wiki, wikis are almost easier to use than the website templates on Google Sites. You can make links for announcements, assignments, and notes. This way parents and absent students will always stay up-to-date on what is happening inside the classroom on a day-to-day basis. It might be fun to let students, personally, work on the class wiki. They will enjoy recapping the day’s events, designing, and editing the site.

Teachers can also collaborate on a wiki. For example, all 9th grade homeroom teachers can work together to create a wiki with general school announcements such as updates on the upcoming field trip. By using a wiki, teachers can work from their own classroom computer (if available) or even their home computer. In addition, any teacher can make changes to the wiki as long as they have access to it with an account/user name.

**Students** Wikis are perfect for student group projects. As mentioned above, anyone can work on a wiki as long as he or she has internet access. This means four students can individually work on an assignment from their own homes at the same time or at different times. (Teachers will be able to tell who did work and when.) This is great for high school students who might not always have rides to work on group projects. Students could also make a wiki page of every topic discussed over the semester. This way, at the end of the semester, they have a place to go if they ever need to look up something from a past semester.

A wiki can also be used as a study tool. Students can type and save questions while studying. Teachers can answer back immediately without having to wait until the next class meeting. Plus, a lot can be added to wikis, such as tables and graphs, for more precise questions and answers. Students can also help each other out since anyone who has access can edit the wiki page.

Students might also want to use a wiki to collaborate on class notes. This is a great study tool! They can all add their notes to one page. This is perfect for students who are absent or for students who might doze off in class! Overall, wikis can be used many ways for students, parents, and/or teachers! //**Be creative!**//