Writing Writing Collaboratively Collaboratively Through WikisThrough Wikis

Writing Writing Collaboratively Collaboratively Through WikisThrough Wikis

By Laura CoffeyBy Laura Coffey

Why use technology for conferring?

• More time to offer feedback.• Build relationships.• Emphasis on the revision process.• More time for students to reflect on

feedback from teachers and peers.• Comments are directly on each

document, so students can go back and reread them.

Why use technology for conferring?

• Learning does not need to end at the conclusion of workshop time.

• Teachers can view work outside of school and plan who they want to meet with face to face. Also, teachers can easily create mini-lessons.

• Easily scaffold lessons: teach students how to effectively respond to writing.

Wiki Advantages• Ability to track revisions over time.• Revisions are automatically saved.• Writer can view changes from revision

to revision. Also, changes are often highlighted.

• Can be revised by multiple authors.• Offers a discussion forum page (great

for general responses).

Wiki Advantages• Easily view student growth over time.• Very dynamic.• Old version of a document is always

saved, so if the student does not like the new document he or she can revert back to the previous document.

• Several authors can co-author pages.

Collaborative Writing• Tori Haring-Smith (1994) describes

three types of collaborative writing:– Serial writing: a lot of individuals add

small parts to a large report.– Compiled writing: writers add

individual pieces to a collection.– Coauthored writing: Turns work of

many writers into one voice. (p. 44)

Wiki Resources• Comparison of Blogs, word

processors and Wikis (Hicks, p. 40).• Wikispaces (www.wikispaces.com/)• Wetpaint (www.wetpaint.com/)• PBworks (www.pbworks.com/)

Getting Started…• Read and consider the tips (Hicks, pp.

44-45).• Read “7 Things”

(www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutWikis/156807)

• Common Craft video (www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english)

Meet Terry the Tennis Ball

• 3-4 class from Geelong, Victoria, Australia (www.terrythetennisball.wikispaces.com/)

• Troy Hicks’ Wiki page (http://eng315.wikispaces.com/)

One more example…• http://walker-wiki.pbworks.com/