Parallel Play or Collaboration: Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Work

Since I am currently creating a wiki, I was interested in viewing Paula White's K12Online presentation discussing how to use wikis in the classroom to enhance collaboration and engagement. She discussed important variables to consider in facilitating engaged learning including task choices, novelty and variety, and authenticity stressing the fact that students have to want to be engaged. According to Phil levels of engagement, rebellion and engagement are at opposites end of the continuum. At the rebellion level students refuse to participate, often attempting to disrupt the class and reduce engagement of other classmates. She stated that use of wikis initially generate increased engagement; her goal was to sustain this level of engagement and encourage collaboration and conversations among students instead of working alone. I agree with her that it is important to discover students' passions; wikis provide opportunities for students to explore and share their passions.

According to White, collaboration is the process of shared creation where something new is created by working together, expressing diverse opinions, and completing a variety of tasks. At the end of the presentation, she also discussed the importance of educators collaborating in the effort to leverage technology for engaged learning among our students. She encouraged her audience to visit and contribute to two wikis, Visual Blooms and Blooms Rubrics, that have been created for sharing how to integrate web 2.0 tools with Bloom's taxonomy in generating tasks and rubrics for facilitating and evaluating engaged student learning.