Exploration 12: Wikis

Today I learned about wikis. As usual, I thought the Common Craft introduction was excellent; both informative and entertaining. As I watched it, I was thinking about how a wiki might come in handy for my reading program. I thought it would be fun to have a wiki that my students and I could add new vocabulary words to as we encountered them in our reading. Then when I looked at the Battle of the Books wiki, I saw that that was one part of that one - Wonder Words, I think it was called. It looked like a good way for kids to comment on common books, too, not just keep track of vocabulary. I'd like to set something up for my students to be able to comment on books, perhaps either just with me through a blog, or perhaps with all of us as a community, like a wiki would allow us to do. I need to think about it some more...

I thought the Battle wiki did a good job of cautioning kids about giving personal information and/or even using their real names. I agree that reminding students about internet safety will have to be an important part of using any of these tools we've been exploring.