Wikis and Their Uses: Beyond Reference

Wikis seem like the twelve tones of the music scale. With a few fixed, straightforward parameters, endless creative results seem possible. I have come across dozens of informational and topical wikis that can be used as reference tools, with new angles being tried all the time. I've explored the wikis for librarians everywhere (Best Practices, etc.), and perused the reviews and comments pertaining to various wiki hosts. Through my group project in LIS 644 I have become aware of the use of wikis as tools for internal collaboration and information sharing, a use that is profiled in the article cited below by Farkas.

My most recent discoveries are school uses--among teachers, school librarians, and district adminstrators in much the same way that library staff use wikis to communicate, and also as a tool for classroom learning and library instruction. (As I am doing my practicums in an elementary and a middle school in the spring, I'm excited about finding these very relevant uses.) Bomar profiles two innovative uses with students in two articles in Knowledge Quest, the magazine of the American Association of School Libraries. Bowllan uses a wiki to create a lesson plan. And I came upon a wiki called WebTools4U2Use (bookmarked) for school library media specialists to get them informed and excited about Web 2.0 tools and how they might be used in schools. This wiki came out of a survey of school librarians and their knowledge of Web 2.0, as reported by Donna Baumbach in her article "Web 2.0 & You."

Article citations:

Baumbach, Donna J. "Web 2.0 & you." Knowledge Quest, vol. 37, no. 4 (March/April 2009), pp. 12-19.

School librarians were surveyed for their knowledge and use of many Web 2.0 tools, and compared with students groups and others. This survey led to the creation of an instructional and sharing wiki for school librarians and Web 2.0.

Bomar, Shannon. "A biology reading response wiki." Knowledge Quest, vol. 37, no. 4 (March/April 2009), pp. 40-41.

Students posted their own biology research on the class wiki, on individual pages, and other students were required to comment with constructive feedback; the students then evaluated their own work on the basis of peer input. The point of the assignment was the research process, and the teacher was surprised by how above and beyond they went, crediting the wiki with better attention and involvement than she ever attained using standard methods.

Bomar, Shannon. "The grammatically correct wiki." Knowledge Quest, vol. 37, no. 4 (March/April 2009), pp. 51.

Students' use of a wiki to collaboratively develop a class grammar guide is described. This project helped students to master grammar, while also providing them with experience of working together in teams outside of a structured classroom environment.

Bowllan, Amy. "A wiki gives a worthy book new life." School Library Journal, vol. 54, no. 9 (September 2008), p. 20.

An interesting use of wiki: to create lesson plan for a book for grade 5, where no lesson plans existed, and easily distribute it.

“Connecting with wikis.” School Librarian’s Workshop, vol. 29, no. 6 (Schools Out 2009), p. 22.

Outlines how school librarians can maintain a district-wide wiki to share lesson plans, meetings attended, etc—build collaboration. Includes recommendations for wiki software/providers.

Farkas, M. "CMS the wiki way." American Libraries, vol. 39, no. 11 (December 2008), p. 35.

Worthwhile short piece with two points of value: (1) how libraries are using wikis to create library websites; it’s easy, staff can maintain easily, looks like a website to the outside world. (2) reviews wiki purveyors for librarians to check out with the possibility of using.