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Using wikis to promote independent work in the 14-19 MFL classroom
Organisational issues
To find a wiki provider, type 'free wiki' into a search engine. Click on some of the results and compare what is on offer. The procedure to set up a wiki is generally a simple one, requiring no more than a name for your wiki, your email address and a password for the wiki. The picture here is for illustration only: there are many providers offering similar services.
Some wikis are free because they want the user to upgrade later to a more sophisticated product for which there is a charge, and some are free because they carry advertising, which would need to be scrutinised to ensure its suitability for an educational audience.
Whilst anyone with access to the Internet can visit and explore the wiki, only people who know the password can edit the content. To give students the right to edit or add content, simply give them the password. Some providers allow passwords to be set for individual pages on the wiki. It is worth remembering, and worth explaining to students, that anyone with Internet access can see what is on the wiki, and that students should therefore not use anything more than their first name when identifying themselves and should not include any personal details in the wiki content that would enable anyone to make contact with them.
Check how much memory is made available free of charge. 100MB will enable the establishment of a substantial educational wiki as long as it is not planned to place large amounts of audio or video on it. If the storage limit is reached on a wiki, it is always possible to set up another one and place a link to it on the home page of the original one.
Check also whether the wiki will allow uploads of interactive exercises if they are to be used. If this is not clear from the provider’s home page it is usually easy to send a query via e-mail.
Having set a password and used it to log in, click 'Edit page', or whatever is appropriate, to write content directly onto the pages, pretty much as would be done in a Word document. Alternatively, write the material in Word first, then copy and paste to the wiki.
Developing activities for a wiki
Interactive activities can be created using Hot Potatoes. Resources written in Word, even something as straightforward as vocabulary lists, can provide a source of material which can be quickly converted in Hot Potatoes into an interactive exercise.
Podcasts can be created on PCs using Audacity, a free downloadable audio editor, or Podium, available free on a 30-day trial. Mac owners can use the pre-installed Garageband software.
To upload existing content from a source such as a departmental Shared Area or from a PC or Mac, click on 'Upload files', or something similar, and follow the on-screen instructions.
The role of the teacher
The teacher needs to log on to the wiki regularly to
- ensure that the rules for the use of the wiki are being adhered to
- monitor the quality of students’ contributions
- identify any recurring grammar issues, identify the problems and post an explanation as to how to improve the content or invite students to work out for themselves what the recurring problem is and post their suggestions on the wiki for further comment by the teacher
- comment in the target language on students’ ideas or join in the dialogue
- respond to any questions the students may have posted about grammar or vocabulary
- place content, ask questions or raise issues which may stimulate further contribution from the students
- restore the wiki in the case of deletion of content
It is important to model the use of the wiki in class before asking students to work independently in order to
- establish house rules
- show students how to log in if they are to edit content
- show students how to insert accented letters
- create interest and momentum
Once the wiki is up and running the site can be revisited in class to celebrate the students’ contributions and progress, or to do some in-depth analysis and corrective work on particular recurring grammar problems. These return visits may also provide an opportunity to involve students who are perhaps not contributing from home. They could be asked to write something for the wiki in collaboration with another pupil, who is an established contributor, or with a group of such students.
Access
To facilitate student access to the wiki, links can be placed on the school VLE or the school website. Remind students of the in-school access arrangements if they do not have Internet access at home.
A useful tip is to place links on the wiki to popular sites such as the BBC modern languages resources. This should have the effect of placing the wiki high on the list of results should students use a search engine to find it.
Counting visitors
It is possible to insert web counters on free wikis. These record the number of visits but give no other information. However, the counter does serve the dual purpose of informing the teacher of the success or otherwise of the wiki, and of motivating students by showing them that their peers are using the wiki.
