Chapter 4 Response

Chapter 4
Until reading Chapter 4 and taking part in a lesson during this class, I had no idea what a wiki was. Now I know that “a wiki is a website where anyone can edit anything anytime they want and each entry is the group’s best effort, not any one person’s” (pg 59 & 61). Wikipedia is a source that seems quite essential and usable in my own classroom. Hearing that is could be one of the most accurate encyclopedias in the world, caught my attention from the moment I read that. If schools have the access to use wikipedia, why not use it then? I feel as if this source would be an advantage to any classroom or students and after playing with it for a little am confident enough to say that I enjoyed it. There are several ways to use a wiki too. “You can create or edit entries to books that have already been started elsewhere” (pg 67) here they could put their input in and give their opinions of the book or what others have said so far about it. Another source I enjoyed and felt that was somewhat easy enough to use was, pbwiki. I did not like the fact that we had to be invited to post on the specific EDTP 504 site, but then I thought about it, and if I wanted to use this in my own classroom, I would appreciate this attribute, knowing that random people could not post comments without being asked to. This comes down to a safety precaution in the end. “The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort” (pg. 74).