Wiki Wiki Wiki

Hi everyone!! Here I am again. Today, I'd like to talk about wikis. I didn't know what a wiki is o what it is for, but once you've learnt about it, you realise that it is a useful tool for teaching and get your students motivated.

Before showing you some examples of wikis that are already in use, let's discover what a wiki is. A wiki is a website that can be edit by lots of users from different computers, that is to say, they are collaborative websites. Here you have some examples:

TCLworkshop. Using wikis in classroom: This wiki offers you a complete guide to the wiki world. It explains you what a wiki is, what you can do with a wiki, how you create and edit a wiki and so many useful information. Only people from the TCL Workshop course can edit, and they must be members of the space. In this case , the wiki is being used as a course management system.

Teacher collaboration: This wiki has been created by pre-k teachers of Louisville Academy to collaborate on curriculum development, lesson planning, and Working on the Work. So, as you must already know, not everybody can edit. The wiki is protected. However, it can give you some ideas about themes to include in your English class.

Uses of Mind mapping in education: The creator of this wiki allows everybody to edit it. Everybody can access to the available information (Mind Mapping Software), but you can also make comments on it. It is a way of trying to put ideas together and to know the experience of people using this software.

You can find more examples on this web!!!

Now, I'd like to tell you about widgets. Wikis also use embeds, the same as blogs. I'm using some of them now, and I think it's worth having a look at them:

Schooltube: It's just like YouTube, but it is made by students. They upload videos about many topics: music, cooking, history, films... Maybe you must encourage your students to make a film and uploading it. I'm sure they'll love it. You just have to register your school and start working on it.

Voice-thread: You can make your students speak English with each other easily. Students discuss over images or videos, so it creates very funny debates among students. They'll have a good time creating short slideshows and recording their voice on it. You need to be logged into this website to use it

Wordle: This website is used to create funny and imaginative posters and embed them on your own web (or wiki). You just have to write the text you want to convert into a kind of poster, so it is very easy to use. You can choose the color, the type of font, the position of the words... So creative.

Again, here you have a link in which you can found other embeds.

Thank you for your attention, and see you soon!