Wiki Wiki Wiki What!!!

Here is my Wiki Hot Link 

I am amazed by Wikis. I had no idea! I created a Wiki for our Superbowl Party to organize food and drinks and to RSVP. I included a link to a map of our house. It was so easy. I really am excited about all that I am learning.

There are many possibilities for utilizing a Wiki in the classroom.  The obvious use is for a field trip or class party.  A Wiki makes organizing it a lot easier, like sign ups for food or car pooling for instance. 

Here is an idea for a creative writing assignment in English, or even a foreign language class.

The Never Ending Story. My kids love when we play this! The teacher creates a setting and a few characters to start off the story.  Then each student is assigned a number.  When their number comes up, each student has five sentences to continue the story and has freedom to change one aspect such as a character, setting, or plot.  The story doesn't have to make sense but it has to have some uniformity.  Creativity and freedom are encouraged!  When it is completed the teacher reads it out loud to much laughter.

Another idea for History Class is role playing the effect of written letters on ideas during the American Revolution.  Considering writers such as Adams, Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson, the students are encouraged to thoughtfully debate the right of the colonies to through off the chains of tyranny.  The contrived experience of having to wait for someone's response, and write out thoughtful responses will help the students understand the role of letters in Colonial America.

It could work in a science lab with a Wiki devoted to one topic such as cell processes with each student assigned a different page which is linked to all the others.  Each page can contain a diagram, picture, or video and text.  

I never realized that Wikipedia was like this.  I heard that anyone could contribute but I really didn't understand how.  It is so intuitive.  It seems that a Wiki isn't intended for making money through advertising or selling something, but is it a possibility?  The O'Reilly article was fascinating in that way.  What will be the new ways of operating for profit?  He didn't even mention Facebook, which I kept waiting for.