Using Wikis in Education

Download a handout to distribute:  Using Wikis in Education_Sept08.doc

Overview and Guidelines for use at Qatar Academy

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A wiki is a group of web pages that allows users to individually or collaboratively publish information to the web. It's features include a place for discussion on each page, being able to track all edits through the history tab, being able to add hyperlinks, multimedia and embed widgets from other Web 2.0 applications e.g. slideshare.net. A wiki can be private, protected or public and each of these levels dictates the ability to view the website and the access an Internet user may have. A private or protected wiki cannot be edited by a non-member of that wiki and membership is either by invitation and/or request. A private wiki cannot be seen by any non-member.

At Qatar Academy we have a Private Label account at www.qataracademy.wikispaces.net. This allows us to create an unlimited number of wikis for teacher and student use. All members of the school community will at some time come in contact with one or more of the wikis. Many students will have their own wiki and use this for things such as their digital portfolio, collaborative class work and global project communication. Many teachers will develop class websites and create wiki-centric, online curriculum websites with the purpose of enhancing communication between themselves and their students. These will provide a resource for study and homework outlines as well as a place for students to submit some forms of work for review (peer and self) and formative feedback.

As part of an online learning community it is necessary to be aware of the expectations when using a Qatar Academy wiki in terms of publication and best-practice digital citizenship. These are summarized here.

Guidelines for Teachers and Students

• All users are to create Qatar Academy wikispaces accounts with appropriate User ID's, preferably using first name and initial or network ID so that each user is clearly identified
• As part of their wiki profile, students are encouraged to use an appropriate icon/avatar as a picture rather than their face
• At no time are students or teachers to publish online personal details of any students; this includes full name, address, telephone number
• The discussion tab is to be used for interaction with peers, teachers and others from around the world (depending on the project) and users are expected to use correct English and observe a more academic style of communication
• Teachers may post constructive comments and discuss work in progress with students on the wiki and in the discussion area but not post individual or group grades or assessments
• Do not upload or link to content with inappropriate language, pictures or videos
• All work is to be original unless otherwise stated and then citations provided. The standard school rules for plagiarism apply to online wikis
• Documents and other files, eg images, textbook excerpts, uploaded to a wiki must be original. If not, it should be clear through citation or other means that permission to publish online has been sought from the owner
• Intentional vandalism of a wiki is not acceptable. Any problems with editing or lost work on a group wiki should be reported to the owner of that wiki as soon as possible
• Images and videos of students or teachers are not to be added to a wiki without their written permission
• The wikis are not to be used for selling or soliciting

Last updated September 2008