Thing 10: Wikis

"Wiki, wiki, wiki" was the mantra following the district kick-off last fall. Scott McCleod's presentation was great, and left us with a taste for technology. Following the presentation, it seemed as though the answer to any question was to "make a wiki!" As a grade-level team, we did use them for collaborative planning for student recognition events and also for potluck/party planning. I never found a great chance to utilize one with my students, however. This year, I am thinking about setting up a wiki for my students to collaborate on the "submarine project", which requires each student to build and present their own fully self-operational device that will float, then sink, then float again (or vice versa). It is the most challenging, open-ended, and time consuming project of the year, and providing them a place to collaborate might be helpful. The project also requires students to keep a log of their work, which might be a good use of a blog...hmm, might have to think about that one.

Today, I did edit the 23 Things wiki, but until then had never edited an "official" wiki, such as wikipedia. As a teacher, I am not against the use of wikipedia for research projects, but do feel that students treat it differently from more "official" sources. I feel strongly that sources need to be cited correctly, and should never be copied word-for-word, or "cut & pasted" into students work. I had two instances of plagiarism this year, both from wikipedia. Neither student thought their actions were plagiarism because it was "only wikipedia". I had to disagree.