Wikis

As an English teacher and now literacy support teacher, I believe the wikis have the most promise. They are easy to set up, controllable, relatively safe, and perfectly suited for many English/literature/writing/vocabulary activities. I can put the weekly vocabulary words up; students can find pictures that help them remember the words and their meanings; students can write collaborative stories on a wiki using vocabulary words. Often I use vocabulary to get students to write more complex, longer sentences. I might give the words I want them to study, model a particular sentence structure (for example, a sentence that begins with a participial phrase), and students can collaborate on the wiki following the sentence structure and using the vocabulary word in the sentence they create.

In former days, I collected all those papers of sentences and definitions (and sometimes my sentence assignment was to write sentences of at least 25 words), took them home, and scanned them, writing comments on usage, etc. On the wiki, students are collaborating, no paper is wasted, it's a snap to review, and the outcome for students is the same: they learn the words, they learn to write complex sentences, and I'm not dragging 50 pounds of paper to and from school every night.

I also see wikis as a great tool for editing and revising formal papers. Even though I haven't tried it yet, I'm looking forward to working with a colleague to get students to upload their papers and revise a peer's paper on line. The amount of information we can put on a wiki, the way it's organized, and the fact that teachers can follow every edit and addition is amazing. The teachers in my building who have experimented with wikis so far are very pleased with the results.

Wiki gets my vote for most useful Web 2.0 tool.