What benefits are there from student wiki participation?
Roll over the topics at the left to see some of the benefits from using wikis as a tool for teaching and learning. These ideas may be helpful in explaining your wiki to parents, students, and administrators.
I think I get it. I WANT TO WIKI! Just show me how to get started.
What benefits are there from student wiki participation?
Roll over the topics at the left to see some of the benefits from using wikis as a tool for teaching and learning. These ideas may be helpful in explaining your wiki to parents, students, and administrators.
I think I get it. I WANT TO WIKI! Just show me how to get started.
Connections
- Build greater connections between new and old knowledge by allowing student-created structure for the information and ideas.
- Build on the best of Bloom: Students use synthesis and evaluation constantly and consistently when they work on a wiki.
Creativity
- Build creativity skills, especially elaboration and fluency. Build creative flexibility in accepting others’ edits!
- Encourage “hitch-hiking” on ideas (a type of creative elaboration and analytical thinking: If X is true, then what about Y?).
- Introduce and reinforce the idea that a creative piece as never “done.”
Engagement
- Increase engagement of all students.
- In lieu of being passive “consumers” of their peers’ presentations (where they doze, doze and ignore), wiki makers respond, respond, change, and improve.
- Culminating projects no longer have to end!!
Interpersonal
- Develop interpersonal and communication skills, especially consensus-building and compromise, in an environment where the product motivates interpersonal problem-solving.
- Develop true teamwork skills.
Writing
- Improve the most challenging phase of writing process: revision, revision, revision!
- Increase flexibility to consider other ways of saying things.
- Build an awareness of a wider, more authentic audience.
Metacognition
- Stimulate discussion and metacognition (where developmentally ready).
- Help students articulate issues about ownership, finding, different conceptualizations of the same content. These can be sophisticated challenges, even for the best students.
