Before reading this, the only wiki I knew about was Wikipedia. The first time I used Wikipedia I thought it was God's gift to students. Wikipedia knows EVERYTHING! Until my teachers told me that it was an unreliable source. I never understood why until my friend edited something on Chris Brown's Wikipedia page. Anyone can add, delete, or change something on a wiki. Because of this, the information is not always accurate. The perfect example is from after last year's Grammys. When Justin Beiber did not win the Grammy for best new artists, his fans edited Esperanza Spalding's Wikipedia page. Most of what they were saying was completely inaccurate and highly inappropriate. Therefore, Wikipedia is a blessing and a curse for me.
The best way I could see this working in a classroom is as a book summary type of thing. Students would post summaries of the books they read. I think its neat because they will be writing it. I'd rather read a book that my peer described than a book than my teacher described. Even though both descriptions would be accurate, my peer's would probably be more interesting.
I did not know that information about wiki for a while either. I used to use it for a lot of things until I learned that anyone could come in and change it all! I like your idea of using it for students to post summaries, students would love that!
ReplyDelete