Wikis are great tools to use in the classroom. Having a little experience with using wikis, both in high school and college, I was already familiar with the general concept. In high school, we created a wiki in physics class that served as a study guide. Each of us contributed a section of the chapter to the wiki. Last semester, in a project-based math class, we used individual wikis as portfolios of our work in the class. I enjoyed uploading my projects to the wiki because I was able to track my own progress, and I did not have to worry about missing a deadline, as everything was in one place.
After creating our all about me wiki pages, I am even more convinced that wikis can be a great resource for use in the classroom. They are easy to edit and personalize, and they offer the ability to create many pages on which students and teachers can collaborate. Similarly to my experience last semester, wikis can be used in the classroom to track projects. Students can easily keep track of all parts of their projects because wikis keep all the information in one place. It is also easy for students to see which tasks have been completed and which ones still need work. Tasks that still need work can then be edited by any member of the group. Another great use for wikis can incorporate cross-curricular connections. For instance, students can be asked to start a fan club for their favorite mathematician in history. Members of the fan club can contribute pictures, quotes, trivia facts, and important mathematical theorems to the page. These can then be used as a backdrop for a group presentation on the mathematician and his or her contributions. All students have equal opportunities to edit the pages of the wiki, and because changes to the pages can be tracked, it is easy for teachers to track the participation of individual students.
There are many uses for wikis in the classroom, and I am looking forward to using them with my future students!
