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=**__[|Welcome to the wonderful world of Wiki's!!!]__**=

Here you will see first hand the amazing power that Wiki's have in the educational setting. This page will contain information regarding Wiki's and also offer examples of other Wiki's for you to utilize when creating yours. The "Classroom Instruction that Works" page will be a chance for you to share your information on my Wiki and to improve the knowledge of your classmates and whoever else would like to view.

**__Why Wiki's? What can Wiki's do for my class?__**

First, Wiki can be defined as, "A collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it; To research a topic on Wikipedia or some similar wiki; To contribute to a wiki ([])". One of the tenents of quality teaching in the 21st Century is to optimize learning through "collaboration" while also understanding the tools and skills that the 21st Century learner may possess. What better 21st Century tool to utilize in your classroom to promote "collaboration" than a Wiki?

Second, Wiki's teach students to negotiate. Knowing that Wiki's are freely edited by any indidual with access means not only am I in control of creating "truth" but so are others. Students will randomly edit and post to the Wiki site knowing full well that what they write may in fact be deleted or changed (Richardson, 2009). As we all know, there is rarely one view of the "truth." The power of Wiki is that it encompasses hundreds if not thousands of views of the "truth." This creates an ever evolving and an ever improving view of what the "truth" is. That, my fellow educators, is powerful learning!

Now, I know what you are thinking, what if someone chooses to edit incorrect information or add obscenities? Remember, Wiki's can be password protected so only those who you trust may get the password. Also, due to the amazing advances in technology, you the educator, will have access to who published what and when on your Wiki - giving you PROOF of "foul play" by a student! You can simply go back and edit the errors yourself or utilize Wiki's wonderful option of reverting back to an earlier saved version of your Wiki before the "foul play." For further information regarding the accuaracy of Wiki's please visit the following sites:

1 - The Book Stops Here - [] 2 - Grading Wikipedia - [] 3 - Study: Wikipedia as Accurate as Brittanica (2005) - [] 4 - Accuracy of Wikipedia Compared to Other Encyclopedias (2008) - []

The truth is that Wiki's may not be one hundred percent accurate. However, according to the above menioned studies, Wikipedia, is pretty darn accurate. Remember, your Wiki will not be nearly as large as Wikipedia making your Wiki more accurate. That being said, I believe Wikipedia should be embraced and taught to our students. Why? First, it is being utilized by our students even as we speak! Whether we like it or not, Wikipedia is a main source of research for many of our students. Second, as you can see from the above sources most of Wikipedia is accurate and trusted. Lastly, students can learn much from the process of using Wikipedia, mainly, negotiation and collaboration (Richardson, 2009)

Third, Wiki's make for wonderful learning opportunities. For example, teachers can create online texts for their classrooms that will allow both the teacher and student to collaborate and contribute to. Students can create their own class Wiki's. Teachers can use them to create lesson summaries, indvidual assessment projects, create a collaborative story telling project (example - http://terrythetennisball.wikispaces.com/), collaboration of notes, authentic assessments, project based learning, science fair projects, student portfolios, correction competitions, etc... The list goes on and on. For a wonderful site that offers great ideas [|follow the links below]:

1 - [] 2 - [] 3 - http://wiki.classroom20.com/Wikis 4 - []

**__Examples of Wiki's in the Classroom__**:

Quite often the best way for educators to learn how to utilize a new tool is to view examples. That being said, below are a list of Wiki spaces you can use to improve your classroom via Wiki's:

1 - http://westwood.wikispaces.com/ 2 - http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/ 3 - [] 4 - [] 5 - [] 6 - http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis (A list of examples of Wiki's in the classroom)