Posted December 2008 Students use wikis to collaborate on ITS project
		When developing a major project for her Year 12 Information Technology Services (ITS) students, Bentley Park College teacher Kate Maccoll wanted to make the task as realistic as possible. She came up with the idea of creating a developer/client situation by linking her Year 12 ITS students with her Year 10 Advanced IT class in an online environment. "The project required my Year 12 students to develop a 3D model using 3D Studio Max and my year 10s were complaining that they wanted different objects for their Alice 3D programming," Kate says. "I decided to put the two together so that the ITS students were building objects for Alice."

Through the Learning Place, Kate connected the classes in the same Virtual Classroom where she set up three wikis. "The first was a 'getting to know you' wiki where students uploaded photos and wrote about themselves," she says. "The second wiki was a table where Year 10 students added the name of an object that they would like developed."

"The Year 12 students then placed their name beside the object as an offer to become the developer for that object. The third wiki - only open to each client/developer pair - was used to allow the clients and developers to communicate with each other."

Kate was pleased with the success of the project and the way her students were engaged and motivated by the wikis. She encouraged other teachers to use wikis as a platform for conducting group projects.

"From a collaboration point of view, wikis allow students to create something together. From a file management point of view, wikis exist somewhere off the school's network allowing students to access the files from a place outside the school such as their home or a friend’s place," she says. "It also allows them to share files if one group member is away."

For information on how to use wikis and blogs see the new Quick Start Guides for Wikis and Blogs below. Teachers can find support in Blackboard by joining the Teaching in Blackboard community.

Wikki guides

• Creating a Wiki (new window) 71k
• Contributing to a Wiki (new window) 82k
• Viewing and Adding Comments (new window) 64k
• Viewing Wiki History (new window) 69k
• Monitoring Participation (new window) 67k

Blog guides

• Creating a private Blog (new window) 75k
• Creating an Individual or Group Blog (new window) 79k
• Contributing to a Blog (new window) 81k
• Viewing and Adding Comments to a Blog (new window) 71k
• Searching for Blog Entries (new window) 66k