Implementing a class Wiki

Over the past few years we have had a class blog to record our reflections on our lrearning and as a tool to build our learning community. Last academic year, we began also using a wiki to further support the learning community we were builing by providing a living central location where pupils add to, improve, share and extend ideas and learning with others in the class in a way that pupils own what is happening with their learning journey. This year, the class and I decided to extend how we used the wiki. In previous verions, the wiki was reserved for eportfolios but its ability to be used as a learning centre was not well applied. In other words, the wiki as a learning resource was underutilised. That meant that we could include areas where the students could more freely share and extend their learning independently. So, this year we added several pages such as a page to collect weblinks and other resources as pupils investigated; a hall of fame for pupils who are elected by the rest of the class as demonstrating Learner Profile characteristics; eportfolios; and a glossaries page where students can add and edit entries as needed; as well as other pages. Our wiki continues to grow as a learner's resource.

At the end of the year I plan to have the class assess how well we used it, how helpful it was and what we need to do for next year to improve it's usefulness. I am particularly interested in witnessing how the ideas of children, who are not interested in IT, change (if they do) and why.
Please visit our class Wiki and give us some hints on what we can do to improve!

Photo Credit: Horia Varlan