Quick, quick! Come see my Wiki!

"Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself."
Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor (1847-1922)

So what is a wiki? Well according to one of the world's largest wikis, Wikipedia, it is "a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language.[1][2]" Although not a difficult concept to grasp, the most straightforward description of a wiki can be found at Wikis in Plain English.

Clearly there are many benefits to using such a user-friendly collaborative tool, but the main one is the idea that "many hands [or heads] make light work." According to 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis, The Wiki Way states that "[a]llowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site...encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users." I think the most important thing to note is that it allows people, (in my case teachers) who are not "techies," to create and use a free tool with students that will make their work easier.

I created my jessicamartens wiki using PBwiki, as it was quite straightforward, and seemed to be one that is commonly used. In case you're confused, I go by my maiden name at school and once I am finished this course, I will take out the reference to my married name.

When I began checking out wiki sites, I started with PBwiki, and went on to Wikispaces as well as Wetpaint. I found Wetpaint to be far more involved than I was prepared to get, so I decided to save that for another day. In the end, the deciding factor was the name - Peanut Butter Wiki - I like peanut butter, so right now, when I don't have time to weigh all of the pros and cons, this seemed the obvious choice.

I began by setting up my frontpage, and then I personalized my wiki by changing the colour. I couldn't think of a logo, other than my school logo, and I thought that for the purpose of this course, I would leave that out for now. This was easy, but then I had to think about how I was going to use this tool with my classes. At the moment, the most logical step for me is to use it as a message board, where I post the projects that my classes will be working on. This is a good starting point because then students and parents can access the projects from anywhere. Also, I took an idea from Joyce Valenza's Springfield Township High School Virtual Library, and I am using the wiki as a pathfinder, which students can use to help them begin their research. I spent A LOT of time finding useful links, and I am hoping that students will contribute some links as well.

I realize, that there are many other ways that wikis can be used, but I am hoping that if I start with this, then other Social Studies 9 and English 11 teachers might contribute as well. I think that teachers and students can really benefit from the use of wikis when students are working on group projects. A wiki allows all group members access to the project at all times which would help to avoid the problems that arise when a group member is away, and s/he has all of the work on his personal drive.

What I appreciate about PB wiki is that so far, I have received daily emails from them with a new aspect of setting up my wiki. I have only really skimmed these messages, but it is nice to know that there is support available. I also found the pbwikimanual which I referred to several times while I was setting up my wiki; however, in all honesty, everything seemed quite straightforward, which makes me wonder if I am just becoming more knowledgeable and less fearful, or if wikis are designed to be that user-friendly. Also, I really like the fact that as a teacher, I can invite my students, and other people that I choose to edit and view my wiki, and I can trace who has edited it. This prevents students and others from abusing the ability to contribute information.

The one thing that I had a lot of difficulty with is that it seems I can't edit my wiki at school - everytime that I try, it crashes, and I can't save my edits. This is rather inconvenient, as I would like to be able to access it there, and I would like students to be able to edit it. I will have to investigate further as to what is causing this glitch.

I think that this is another tool that I can add to my toolbox of Web 2.0 tools that can easily be used with students and staff. In fact, a couple of other teachers and I are going to plan a fieldtrip to see a performance of Macbeth, and I am going to suggest that we use a wiki to list and check off the tasks that need to be completed in order to make this work.