Wikis and Writing - Web 2.0 at its best!

I was inspired by one of my classmate’s discussions of Web 2.0, a term that I have recently become very familiar with, and so I began to look at ideas of this Web 2.0 concept in terms of my focus on wikis. I found this interesting wiki from the New York City Writing Project (http://www.nycwp.org/paulallison/newsItems/departments/wikiTeaching). They introduce their blog as a story about moving from the “old style” of interactive websites into “Web 2.0 dynamic wiki”. I found their rationale for using a wiki over a website interesting and very much in line with the research I have found supporting the use of wikis. “By choosing the wiki over the website, we were choosing to put students into the middle of this project of building this new form of information, knowledge, and culture”. The idea of placing students into real meaningful learning situations where they take ownership of their work is one of the key reasons I would chose to incorporate a wiki in my classroom. This wiki is a wonderful example of the collaboration, self-awareness, and learning that can be accomplished through a wiki. Instead of students feeling like writing is a chore that the do alone with no social interaction, which for many is not an activity that they enjoy nor are actively engaged in learning, the wiki provides an opportunity for collaboration and peer editing of writing, but it adds a social interaction and a feeling of community that is often lost in some traditional English classrooms. I especially found the wiki page Fostering Latino Pride: A Story of Collaborative Writing very insightful about the expressive ability of a wiki, but also the opportunity for real instruction on writing and expressing ideas in written form. (http://www.nycwp.org/paulallison/2005/03/24#a32) This is a great example of a wiki be3ing used to foster collaboration and writing skills.