“If you build it, they will come” doesn’t always work with technology, and wikis are no exception. How do you get students to go to the resources you establish as part of a class, and how do you get them to engage with the material or the tool once you’ve gotten them there? If you are setting up a wiki for your students, or just thinking about using one, consider these tips:
Give Students Clear Instructions
To make sure your students understand how to engage with your new online resource make sure you post clear directions on the front page of the wiki.
- Add student assignments and instructions on the front page.
- Treat your wiki front page as a short introduction with links to other pages.
- Type a few bullet points and create links to the pages (to link, edit a page, select the text, and click “Insert Link”).
- If you have handouts, create a page called “Handouts” and upload the files there.
Once you have you wiki set up consider an activity that will gt your students to engage with the tool and adopt it.
Individual pages– Ask each student to create a wiki page, posting information about their interests and what they hope to learn from the class. Be sure to comment on the pages, and engage them by referencing their personal interests in discussions. Use this as an easy icebreaker to have students get to know each other.
Class notes – Each week assign one student to write up the class notes, including important points and class discussion. Be sure to comment on the notes, and add additional insight from the lesson.
Common Uses of Wikis
A common usage of wikis is for research assignments. Students working individually or in groups to research a topic and use pages on a wiki to post their finding so they can be shared with the class. Other students can then review the work, not just for mundane issues with spelling and grammar, but also the structure of the report or choices of sources. Wikis are built for collaborative writing, so any activities built around peer review and editing could work well in a wiki context. PBWiki has a handy commenting feature that works well for this type of reviewing activity.
For more ideas you might check out PBWiki’s list of wikis being used by educators that are built on their system.