Wiki First Impressions

Having used wiki's before, I was already aware of their usefulness in working with a group on class projects and presentations. I, however, was not aware of all of the uses that wiki's provide for a teacher. The numerous uses such as class collaboration on exam study guides and review of materials including chapter by chapter discussions that students can have about a novel intrigued me greatly. I definitely want to use wiki's in my future classes because I can easily see their usefulness in getting students to discuss their thoughts. One of the greatest difficulties for an English teacher is the fact that there always just a few students that speak up during discussion and the majority of the class is uninvolved. By requiring students to post their thoughts on individual chapters on a wiki, I can very easily see how far each student is in the novel and guide my future discussions by what the students seem to find the most interesting. Also, I could see using a wiki with colleagues in my department to keep all of us on even ground for progression through classes. The wiki is such an accessible tool and requires so little prior computer oriented knowledge. Needless to say, I am a fan of wiki's.