As student groups developed ideas for their wiki sites, they workshopped the use of the wiki technology. To facilitate this process, I created a wiki site designated as our practice wiki. We used the site to analyze and reflect upon class readings, while consciously monitoring the technical moves necessary to create, edit, and link on the wiki.
A workshop like this one does not have to take place in a computer lab. In one section, enough students had laptops so that we were able to collaborate on the practice wiki from their small group circles. In another section, students took turns using my laptop. I logged in to the wiki and let students make edits from my computer. The classroom projector screen displayed the action, allowing us to hold a conversation about how to use the wiki features.
Here is the practice wiki from the section that used my computer: http://section66practicewiki.wikispaces.com/
One of the best results from the practice wiki workshops was the way the wiki allowed students to develop an understanding of difficult readings and plan for their project. In two in-class assignments, students had to create and publish new pages which were linked to the home page. In the first case, the students’ job was to explain the author Keith Grant-Davie’s opinions concerning rhetorical situations and their constituents: exigence, rhetors, audience, and constraints. In the second case, students identified an idea from a class reading that related to their wiki project. It was a very productive session as student groups searched the text, extracted quotes, discussed interpretations, published a wiki page, and learned to use the wiki technology.
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