Comments on: Upcoming Presentation on using a Wiki in the Classroom

By: adam claridge

adam claridge — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:29:23 +0000

i, too, would love to be able to hear what you have to say on this. i am a final year education student looking to work in primary shcools and am just now embarking on looking at how a wiki might work (or not) in a primary school setting.

(”primary” = “elementary”) :-)

cheers.

By: Ericka

Ericka — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 02:15:06 +0000

Interesting, and I can see how that could happen, but it was just the opposite for our class - probably because we introduced the wiki first and the the purpose of the blog seemed murky, I think. Thanks for the comment.

By: Prentiss Riddle

Prentiss Riddle — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:52:08 +0000

I wish I could be there to hear your talk. Last year I was part of an unintended side-by-side experiment on this topic at UT’s School of Information. One of my profs introduced wikis in his classes and another introduced a blog. Of the two, I’d say the blog was more successful.

The blog format — post a paragraph or two about something of interest, or respond to other people’s posts — seemed analogous enough to classroom discussion for people to get the idea, and easily mappable into the “participation” portion of our grade.

The blank slate of the wiki, by contrast, seemed to discourage students from becoming active participants, and the fact that changes and attributions were out of sight in each page’s history made it harder to see how one might be rewarded for participating. The main activity that took place in the wiki was the one specific task the prof requested, to post our papers and presentations, a pretty far cry from the interesting ways people use wikis in the wild.

Just one experience, and I’m sure others’ would differ.