Cooperative learning is popular in education but student teams often struggle with how to organize their work. Wikis are great tools for collaborative learning because they provide a shared space for participants to work together and a history record so instructors and teammates can keep track of who did what work. Wetpaint is a free wiki tool which educators can use with their students or peers to create collaborative sites to document group projects. You can create websites that mix all the best features of wikis, blogs, forums, and social networks in to a rich, user-generated community based around the content of your choice. It is a social website that is so easy to use that anyone can participate.
Type of Material:
Wetpaint is a free collaborative web authoring environment.
Recommended Uses:
Wetpaint will be most effective when used for collaborative learning projects where students create content and document the work they do. Being able to easily post content provides an opportunity for all team members to participate equally in the project. Wetpaint can be used equally well with face-to-face and online students.
Wikis can be used for planning sessions, summaries organized by themes, research projects and much more.
Technical Requirements:
Users should have a current version of Internet Explorer or Firefox. Safari and Opera are not supported.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The intended goal of the Wetpaint wiki site is to make it easy for groups of people to share information, experiences and build social communities around anything they want.
Instructors will determine the learning goals for each wiki site.
Target Student Population:
University students are the best candidates for this tool as they can make decisions about registering for site credentials without parent approval. However, there are many examples of K-12 students using Wetpaint so teachers shouldn't be deterred by the need to ask parent permission for participation.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
A general understanding of how web sites are organized can be helpful. An instructor can set the basic navigation if they have concerns about students being able to organize a site in a timely and logical manner.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Even though Wetpaint is used extensively outside of education, a microsite is provided that addresses the needs of teachers and students. (http://www.wetpaint.com/education) Here you will find examples of good sites, forums for discussing successes and issues, and your very own Educator Ambassador, Mr. Bartels. The site has an entire section dedicated to the use of Wikis in Education. It is full of examples and opportunities for educators at every level.
Concerns:
None.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Instructors may find that Wetpaint is just the tool they need for successful collaborative student projects. Learners are empowered to create a cooperative website with minimal training. Wetpaint sites include discussion forums and history information to help instructors track team progress and identify potential slackers while they still have time to change their ways.
Group projects: Students work together in one place to research, outline, draft, and edit projects within the wiki
Assignments: Post homework, course materials, study guides, and more.
Resource Collections: Organize articles, websites, videos, and other resources for students
The main use and objective of a wiki is to collaborate on a given task. The task can be any number of things and is limited only by the creativeness of those who contribute. A wiki can be one or many pages. It can be used by students, by teachers, parents, and organizations.
Examples of wikis uses are: peer reviews, group FAQ, parent involvement, online newspaper, and more. A wiki allows material to be used, approached, and developed in a variety of ways.
Concerns:
None.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Wetpaint is easy to use. A simple form walks teachers through the creation of a site, prompting them to invite others (their students) to join the good fight. A teacher can set up sites for all teams in a matter of minutes. Students receive emails inviting them to register for Wetpaint and join the wiki that has been created for their team. Once in the site, student editors can add pages or click the Easy Edit button to begin editing the home page. Students will find it so easy that they will begin to dream up ideas for creating their own wikis.
Wetpaint has received several awards for its web site including Best in Digital Media, Best Wikis Web 2.0 Award (two years in a row), and Top 50 Websites of 2007 by Time Magazin
Concerns:
Wetpaint is supported by web ad revenues so sites automatically come with ads. The good news is that educators can request that ads be removed on their sites. This process can take several days. It would be nice if there was a way to automate this process where educators would sign off on the purpose of their site as part of the creation process. For now educators should create wikis several weeks in advance of use so there is time to remove the ads before students enter the wiki.
Other Issues and Comments:
Very impressive site.
Creative Commons:
Search by ISBN?
It looks like you have entered an ISBN number. Would you like to search using what you have
entered as an ISBN number?
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
