The Importance of Wikis in Teaching and Learning

Wikis are an incredibly useful online resource in teaching and learning. Most teachers nowadays know about blogs and many teachers make very effective use of them. They are used to bring purpose and audience to writing. But how many teachers know about wikis and how many make use of them to good effect as part of their teaching repertoire?

Achieve true collaboration with wikis

Wikis are a powerful tool to support learning across the curriculum and an essential component in developing digital citizenship. First and foremost, wikis enable true collaboration given that the pages within them may be jointly authored by groups of children. Unlike blogs and forums where the author’s posts may not be edited by others, the whole purpose of a wiki is for the initial post to be edited, improved and updated by successive authors.

Wikis can be used for KS2

Wikis lend themselves to activities that require children to present data and information through electronic means. This is part of the required subject content for KS2. Working collaboratively, they may easily present information in a variety of formats combing text. Images and media. The wiki is an ideal tool for collecting and analyzing information in the first place and developing the presentation as more contributions are made. This is enhanced as each stage in editing the wiki is invariably recorded in the audit trail enabling teachers and children to readily track progress, to restore and reinstate previous versions. This brings confidence to the editing process for all concerned. The audit trail also records who has authored specific versions.

How do wikis help develop core digital skills?

Through the use of a class wiki children can gain first-hand experience of contributing and editing online content. It enables them to see for themselves, and experience, the challenges of differentiating between what is fact and what is opinion, what is true and what is not. Furthermore, they begin to develop a real understanding of copyright and ownership. These are some of the core digital skills, knowledge and understanding set out in the UKCCIS framework, Education for a Connected World. It gives them a real understanding of Wikipedia, – the source of much of the information they find through their online searches and enables them to approach it with a more considered and critical approach.

How does DB Primary facilitate the use of wikis?

The DB Primary platform gives teachers the ability to easily use wikis, alongside blogs, forums and email. It enables them to make comparisons between these forms of online communication and collaboration to decide the most appropriate tool to use for different purposes. The wiki is easy to access and set up and has the benefit of being as open or secure as the teacher determines. The editors may be a small group of children or the whole class and the audience may be restricted to a single class or extended to the whole school (and beyond if required). These configurations may be changed quickly and easily by the class teacher to maximize impact.

Want more info?

To find out more about the wiki feature in DB Primary contact our support team at support@neweraed.co.uk.