Wikis

A very helpful Web 2.0 tool for world language teachers who want to promote collaborative learning in their classrooms is a wiki.  A wiki, which comes from the Hawaiian word “wiki-wiki” meaning “quick” is a space on the web where users can share work, ideas, links, pictures, videos and other media and it is a collaborative site where users can edit and share information in real time (Richardson, 2010).  For instructional purposes, a wiki can be used to gather, sort and share information and it can be used to collaboratively write and create. In a world language class, a wiki can be used in many different ways such as a data base for vocabulary (Kilickaya & Krajka, 2010), a space for students to work collaboratively, a repository of student work or class information and resources. Two wiki sites that I found were www.wikispaces.com and www.pbworks.com . Each seems user friendly and have a free version.  Each is also password protected so that only registered users can access a wiki.  This would help a teacher ensure security for student users. 

I also found several world language teachers that have wikis on the web.  The purpose of their wikis is to provide resources to other world language teachers.  Two that I particularly liked can be found at  http://sgallagherdecol.wikispaces.com/Wikis and http://nhsspanishclasses.wikispaces.com/Teachers .  The first wiki is great for a teacher who is just starting out with wikis because it provides links to multiple examples of wikis used for different purposes. The second wiki is a great resource for Spanish teachers because it provides categorized links to online tools that can facilitate different aspects of Spanish instruction.

As a future teacher, I see wikis as a great tool for organizing information and providing students with a online space to work together in a safe way.

Reference:

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms.  3^rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corbin Press.

Kilickaya, F., & Krajka, J. (2010). Teachers' Technology Use in Vocabulary Teaching. Online Submission. Retrieved from EbscoHost.