WikiSpaces

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[|Wikispaces] is an online tool which allows you to create and manage your own wiki. What is a wiki? It is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove, and edit content. The name comes from the Hawaiian “wiki-wiki” meaning “quick." Characterized by ease of use, a wiki is an effective tool for group authoring and notetaking where users need to share and edit information, exchange ideas, or provide feedback to one another. Adding to a wiki is much like word processing and changes are instantly available. To protect information on a wiki, sites can require users to log-in before being able to edit. In addition,the history feature within wikis allows you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom, and earlier versions of a page can always be accessed.

=Connections to Strategies=
 * Summarizing & Note Taking - students add notes to wiki pages and can then edit, discuss, and make on going changes
 * Cooperative Learning - groups of students use a wiki to collaboratively brainstorm and then plan a project

=Learn About Wikis= First, watch the following video, "Wikis in Plain English. media type="youtube" key="-dnL00TdmLY" height="315" width="383"

Then read [|this article] to learn more about wikis.

=Examples of Wikis= Examples of Educational Wikis – a large collection of wikis organized in (what would you expect?) a wiki!

Take a look at the following examples to see the various ways wikis are being used: Comparing Hemispheres - project between schools in NY and Australia Westwood Schools Wiki - online space for Camilla, GA students [|Welker's Wikinomics] - AP Economics class at Shanghai American School [|Hanalee Book Wiki] - 5th graders study of the novel, //Turn Homeward, Hannalee// Arbor Heights Elementary School Wiki - wiki as a school web site Flat Planet - students in Canada and UK examine environmental issues Google Earth Resources - wiki to provide resources for a workshop [|wikiHow] - collaborative project to build world's largest how-to manual

=Create Your Own Wiki=
 * 1) Go to WikiSpaces for Educators and create your account. Be sure to indicate that it will be for K-12 school use.
 * 2) Create and name your wiki.
 * 3) Add additional pages to your wiki - one for each of the nine strategies and one for your Implementation Plan.
 * 4) Add to your wiki as you study each of the instructional strategies and learn new technology tools to support them.


 * For additional help with this activity, refer to the step-by-step instructions:** **[|Wikispaces.pdf]**

=Similar Tools=

**[|WetPaint]**
Free to use, but no longer offering ad-free space for educators.