Students need to improve their editing skills as well as take more responsibility for being a part of a group project. All too often students begin a collaboration, but their interest flags and the project suffers as does the project's final grade. However, students can use a Wiki to create a collaborative document. Individual members of the group each make their own contribution and can edit or add more current information to the document that a previous member of the group has added to. The teacher can go to the site and see who has been editing or adding information. This then allows students to take individual responsibility for what they have contributed to the Wiki, without penalizing the whole group for a student who fails to contribute to the document.
"Video: Wikis in Plain English." Retrieved November 23, 2007, from Common Craft Productions. Web site: http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english
Students will view the video at the Web site: http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english and the teacher will ask students some questions to see that all the class is on the same page. The class will then go to the site that has been created by the the teacher at PBworks.com. This site will allow students to edit materials that they have each created for their project. The advantage of this Wiki is that some students may have done more in depth research than others and the students can add information when it is their turn to edit. Students editing can then be viewed on line by the teacher and each student will get the grade that reflects their contributions to the project.
After the Wiki has been created, the students will use the "Writing Rubric" to edit their completed group Wiki.
Rubric for Project