Wikis are very easy to use. I searched the Teacher/Librarian wiki and found a lot of useful resources to use in the classroom including audiobooks. It was also very easy to edit the sandbox portion of the Spring Branch Library Future wiki.
Allowing students to edit wikis will encourage students to socialize and collaborate to share information. I think that giving students the opportunity to write their thoughts will also increase their reflective writing skills.
I would like to have a classroom wiki for books that we are reading. Students can respond to reflection questions about the books as well as post their own opinions and thoughts about what they have read. Students can also use a wiki to post discussions or summaries about concepts that we learn in class. This will be a wonderful way for me to check their understanding of the concepts in a way that is fun and interactive for students. I could also split the class into groups to add their groups job to the wiki. For example, if we are studying the water cycle, I could have an evaporation, condensation, and precipitation group. They could each add the information about their part to the wiki. In the end, we would have a class description of the water cycle.
My only concern with wikis is the capability to edit anyone's comments. With strict monitoring and ethical descussions, I hope this won't be too much of a problem.
In regards to monitoring student editing: Have them know that YOU will be able to see what each student changes.... And I think there is a way to only allow them to change certain aspects of the page. The security setup is fairly user friendly.
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