As I am researching effective forms of educational technology that I might integrate into my classroom, I have found the use of a wiki to be a point of interest. Traditionally, educators could create a website or simply deal with their classroom communication via email, phone and letters/handouts sent home. These methods now seem so archaic compared to the wealth of more progressive options, such as a wiki. A wiki is an engaging teaching and learning tool that is easy to use and simple to maintain. As a educator, you can create a hub of learning and information for your students and parents. There are some school that require every teacher to have a wiki for this purpose. I found a great example of using your wiki to inform students and parents about you and your classroomin which this middle school English teacher used the wiki to post assignments, class calendars, goals and more (http://tbensinger.wiki.hoover.k12.al.us/Calendar).
A wiki can be much more that a place to inform students and parents. Wikis can be a place of collaborative education among students. A wiki can be a resource for general information on a topic of interest. For all the many ways that a wiki can work to benefit teachers, students and parents, it is important to be mindful of the main downfall to the wiki: the freedom for anyone to edit a wiki. You must be careful when using this outlet and monitor the content to ensure that what is "out there" is what you intended to represent you and your classroom.
So, is the wiki craze all it is cracked up to be? I think that wikis have their benefits, but also some significant limitations that must be considered by an educator before commiting to this form of communication.
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