By Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky
Director of Educational Technology
The Frisch School
http://techrav.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/techrav
Wikis for Education
Advantages
• Easy to Use- WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get Text Editor)
• Multi-Platform: Windows and Mac
• Global Reach- Multilingual and available anywhere in the world.
• Encourages Collaboration
• Supports asynchronous online discussion forums
• Versatile and customizable
• Safety- Every version of every page is saved.
• Security- Comment moderation (after posting) and permissions
Disadvantages
• Discussions can only be moderated after posting.
Classroom applications
Teacher Collaboration focusing on a Common Theme or Subject
School Partnering
Asynchronous Student Discussions
Student Projects
Teacher Collaboration-Holocaust
Integration Day
School Partnering- Amal, Nahariya
Asynchronous Student Discussions-
Korach’s Common Sense Rebellion
Asynchronous Discussion Forums:
What the research says…
Asynchronous online
discussions
Chance to reflect
Draw on prior knowledge
Less stressMore sensitive
topics
Higher order thinking skills
Student Projects- Be the Prophet
Amos WebQuest
Wikis Examples
The Frisch School Wiki-http://wiki.frisch.org Password protected.
http://frischgoesgreen.wikispaces.com/
http://students4israel.wikispaces.com/
http://shiriyah.wikispaces.com/
http://ifaces2011.wikispaces.com/
Now let’s make a wiki of our own!
Go to http://www.wikispaces.com/ to start
creating your first wiki. Then follow me…
Works Cited
Blankenship, W. (2009). Making connections: Using online discussion forums to engage students in historical inquiry. Social Education, 73(3), 127-130.
Merryfield, M. M. (2001). The paradoxes of teaching a multicultural education course. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(4), 283-299.
Pena-Schaff, J. B., & Nichols, C. (2004). Analyzing student interactions and meaning construction in computer bulletin boards. Computers & Education, 42(3), 243-265.
Warschauer, M. Comparing face-to-face and electronic discussion in the second language classroom. CALICO Journal v13 n2-3 p7-26 Win-Spr 1995-96.
By Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky
Director of Educational Technology
The Frisch School
http://techrav.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/techrav