HowToMakeAWikiAssignment



Working with and Building on Existing Information
Web 2.0 tools make the gathering and organization of information a first stage in any project. Prior to these individualized tools being accessible to students, teachers retained the "source-like" quality of information provider and information organizer. With these new tools, those roles should not be provided by the teachers, but students should be rewarded via process grade for gathering useful information and for organizing that information in a meaningful way that enhances the process and the work.

1. Inputting new information
Along with that idea should be the notion of gathering new information. In other words, when students gather information that demonstrates innovation or creativity, it should also be reflected in the process grade.

Here's how this looks like as an writing assignment. Think about your faith integration paper: • Create a wiki page for a paper you're going to write with a classmate. • Outline the paper • Add bullet points to chunk/organize information

A teacher can look in the wiki's History tab to see who worked on this part of the assignment.

2. Synthesis of Ideas and Relevant Use
Finally, the information should not only be organized but synthesized into useful ideas for the project or work at hand. While this is typically viewed as a higher order thinking skill, synthesis is a normal step in making the vast available information usable and applied within the specific context of an assignment. Again, that skill should be valued in the process grade assigned by the teacher.

Whatever the content or specific focus of the assignment, if the stages outlined above are not reflected in the grade, the students will feel that their work has not been adequately reflected. Additionally, if these stages of process are achieved effectively, they develop advanced level skills in students such as collaboration, idea modification, summary and synthesis, and application. Such skills are difficult to develop well in students and should be reflected in the actual grade. Therefore, focus on the learning process rather than an answer or preset objective should drive the grading differentials.

Here's how this looks like as an assignment: • Organize the information. Move bulleted points around so the wiki page is a coherent thought. • Delete irrelevant information. • Write very basic sentences for the beginning and ending paragraphs.

Again, a teacher can look in the wiki's History tab to see who worked on this step.

3. Collective Knowledge Use: Learning
Actual learning takes place when what is understood is applied in some meaningful context of use. That is, we can forget facts and information bites that we may have memorized for recall; however, we tend to always know what we use on a regular basis and/or what has been integrated into our professional practice or knowledge base for life and work.

Here's how this looks like as an assignment: • Write one paragraph of the paper at a time. • Save the page. • Edit the writing, focusing on improving grammar, clarifying purpose, etc. • Add relevant examples, just as you would in writing a paper by yourself. A teacher can look at both the final product and the wiki's History tab for final grades. This project is due when the teacher says it's due, but the actual wiki can continue to be edited and improved.