What about Wiki?

Recently, in my TPTE 486 class I got to utilize and really explore using a wiki. The first real and only experience I have ever had with a wiki was using and viewing Wikipedia. Even as I was using it, I did not fully understand the concept of it. Anyone can just edit over what someone else wrote? How does that work? What if I edit it simultaneously with someone else? All these questions were answered when I learned to use Wiki and what exactly a wiki was. 

Wiki is a great tool that can be used for many different purposes, but basically a wiki is a website that allows its users to edit and change it making it much simpler to use than emailing to get responses (see picture to the left). All you do is write what you would like and others can help edit or alter it. For example, in my class we used it to hold a bio page of each of my classmates with a main directory page that is constantly editable. Learning how to use it was easier than I thought with a very simple layout. There are three main things to remember when using a wiki:Write, Edit, and Save. Once you have that down you can turn it into anything you would want. So then I got to thinking, how can I use this tool in my future classroom? 

Learning about wiki in TPTE 486 has allowed me to think about collaboration learning in a whole new way. I think collaboration on this scale could go a long way in group learning or whole classroom learning. This could be a great tool for English where we could write a classroom story together or write a document about a historical event that happened, taking us back to that time or place. We could also use it in math, where we could collaboratively solve a problem together or each student could post a single question on a topic that comes together to create a study guide for the class. Another use could be as a tool for you as teacher. You could use wiki to create collaborative lists of supplies needed for classroom, party, and field trip sign up that connect parents and involve them in contributing. This way, each student and parent could feel like a partial author, each contributing his or her part to the wiki. There is an air of caution that a wiki in general is meant to be constantly editable so teaching your students appropriate editing and use of this tool is necessary before you get started, but once you do you will want to Edit, Write, and Save every day!