wikis+I

=Wikis I=

The objectives of the Wikis session are the following:


 * To develop a more critical awareness and understanding of what 'wikis are and how ‘wikis’ can be used with secondary students for a variety of reasons
 * the differences of using wikis vs blogs
 * the ways in which wiki projects can be used to give learners real reason for expressing themselves in English
 * how to create ideal learning conditions for students using wikis
 * how best to involve parents and other classes in a wiki project

What is a wiki?
The word //wiki// is a Hawaiian word that means //fast//.

A wiki is a simple-to-use software which allows users to create, edit and link pages together. It is an easy way for people to collaborate on documents online and for this reason is often used for community websites.

The most popular wiki is the online encyclopaedia http://wikipedia.org
 * Definition of wiki at @http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
 * Wikis in Plain english

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What are the main features of a wiki?
All wikis have similar features. Wikis usually have the following parts / pages:


 * article text
 * discussion
 * history
 * links to other pages
 * account / login
 * search

If you want to contribute to a wiki, then you usually have to create an account and login first. Next to the article/text there is a discussion page (we will look at this later) and a history of edits made to the page. This allows you to see who has written what, and also allows you to revert to previous versions of the text. Typically there are links to other pages and a search feature.

Unlike other types of websites, the design of pages are usually fixed and the most important feature is the text, which makes wikis good for use with language learners.

Using Wikipedia with students
**Discussion / Reflection:**


 * Have you ever used Wikipedia with learners? If so, how did you use it?
 * How would you / could you use Wikipedia with your students?
 * What level / age group do you think you could use Wikipedia with?


 * Some ways of using Wikipedia:**

Because Wikipedia articles are written / edited by anyone without any need for specialist knowledge, sometimes there are errors and/or ommissions. Students go to Wikipedia, choose a place / subject they know well and examine the Wikipedia entry for this. How well is it written? Is there anything missing? Later, in class, they report back on what they find and/or write a different version of the article with their changes.
 * 1) Accuracy/Relevance of information** (suitable for older / higher level students).

Each article in Wikipedia has a discussion page, which can be accessed by clicking the tab to the right of the article tab. The discussion page of many controversial subjects contain quite heated arguments that could be used to stimulate debate in class. You could either choose a topic and copy and paste parts of the discussion page for work in class or ask the students themselves to look for comments they find interesting about a particular controversial subject.
 * 2) Discussion page** (suitable for older / higher level students).

You can find the list of Wikipedia controversial issues here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wikipedia:List_of_ controversial_issues

Tip: Don't like Wikipedia? Citizendium is an alternative : @http://en.citizendium.org/

PROJECTS WITH WIKIS