EDET573 - Evaluating Wikis Assignment

A wiki is an emerging tool in the world of education. Click here to find out what a wiki is. I will be evaluating and deciding the effectiveness of two wikis that are being used in English language arts classrooms. My main goal is to decide whether or not the wikis are enhancing literacy skills.

Wiki 1 - http://hobbitalk.wikispaces.com/%2A%2AAssignments%2A%2A 
This is a classroom wiki that provides activities such as group discussions and podcasts for the The Hobbit.

Wiki 2 - http://thewright3.wikispaces.com/Summary+4
This is a classroom wiki that provides an research/summary activity for The Wright Three.

Evaluation components adapted from ReadWriteThink Evaluation Rubic and Vicki Davis, author of CoolCatTeacher blog.
____________________________

1. Collaborative Effort -

Wiki 1 provides a collaborative opportunity for students to work together to create podcasts for various chapters of the book. The students must write scripts, record, and upload their podcasts to the wiki. Throughout the wiki, students are also asked to the add information to various pages and participate in discussions regarding the text.

Wiki 2 assigns students a page on the wiki. The student is responsible for uploading information specific to that page. There are no teacher directed or assigned discussions for students to participate in. The student do use the wiki as a review tool for a test over the assigned novel.

2. Attractiveness-

Wiki 1 does not include very many graphics. The homework page is very cluttered.

Wiki 2  does a better job at providing images. The students included images on the pages they created.

3. Organization -

Wiki 1 is organized for the most part with a table of contents, but the assignments page is very hard to follow.

Wiki 2 is very organized and provides the viewer with a table of contents. Each page has a heading and is organized into parts, and the underlines are very helpful between linked pages.

4. Hyperlinks -

Wiki 1 has a page devoted to finding more information about the book as well as interactive websites.

Wiki 2 requires students cite any outside information they used under "External Links". The link are easily accessible with each page.

_______________________________

Overall, I found both wikis to be very beneficial to the classroom.  Wiki 1 provided more activities to show comprehension and understanding of the entire book. Wiki 2 does not do this because it only has students show understanding of a particular subject. Also, I felt that Wiki 2 was not as collaborative as Wiki 1.  This could be because Wiki 1 is for older students while Wiki 2 is for younger students. I do think that students would enjoy participating in both wikis.