The Wonderful Wiki of Oz

This semester we are producing The Wizard of Oz. Now, we don’t actually have a wonderful wiki yet, but I have used them in class for both design projects and history projects with much success.

A wiki (click for a video summary) is basically a website with multiple authors. The most well-known wiki is Wikipedia, which allows users to edit their pages to come up with extensive (and hopefully accurate) explanations of a seemingly limitless number of topics. For classroom use you probably don’t want the whole world to have editing access, but depending on the host you use you can limit the number of editors, and even who can view the content.

For my projects I generally break the research into parts and then assign smaller groups to find information about different topics. For example, one of my classes researched Greek theatre, and I assigned groups to study geography, fashion, architecture, art, playwrights, festivals, and government. Each group created a page within the wiki about their specific topic integrating text and images, and when they were done we had created a comprehensive overview of Greek theatre. For my design wikis, student groups research setting, costume/make-up, past productions, reviews, and mood images. We have even done dramaturgy projects using a wiki.
For teachers, a wiki is a great way to assign group work because each action is recorded. So you can see how much Johnny added to the page in comparison to Suzy. And for those trouble-makers who like to mess with other people’s work, you can also see who exactly did the damage, depending on how you have set up the usernames.

My district has its own wiki server, so that is what I have used in class. But there are several other sites with varying degrees of privacy and administrative control (and cost) that can be used. Some examples are Wetpaint and Wikispaces.  Wiki’s are a great way to group-think and collaborate, skills which are essential in any theatre classroom.

Phase I: Creating a Class Website

Let’s get down to business. The first step of integrating technology into the theatre classroom is creating a class website. I’m not referring to a publicity site with the purpose of advertising your productions (though that is a good idea), but rather an instructional site that serves as a home base for your classroom instruction. Read this article from Edutopia for an explanation of the necessity of creating a site and some basic elements that you should include:

The Classroom Web Page: A Must-Have in 2008 | Edutopia

As this was written in 2008, clearly I am a little behind the times. But, in my limited opinion, the article is still relevant.  Note: Google Pages and Homepage Startup no longer exist.

Personally, I created my website using Google Sites. I did this for two reasons: 1) my campus technology specialist recommended it, and 2) my district is going Google next year with a host of educational resources, and I figured I’d get in early. Google Sites is sort of a mashup between a basic free website (such as Angelfire of yore) and a wiki. Both my co-teacher and I have access to moderate the site. Another added perk is that Google has their hand in everything which makes it easy to add a lot of content with very little effort. For example, I use Google Calendars to share upcoming lessons, deadlines, and events; Blogger to post links and other relevant info that applies to the units we are studying; and Google Docs to give students access to handouts and other forms from home and to eliminate the need for paper with online forms. I am still tweaking the site and haven’t fully explored all of my options yet, but there are certainly many to choose from.  I also use this site for my extracurricular productions, posting rehearsal notes, field trip forms, and (after closing) show photos.

Besides the convenience of having an info hub, I think the most important reason for having a class website is to teach students about how to use the internet for something other than Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia.  They are learning to collaborate and interact with a medium that will continue to drive many aspects of life for quite some time.  Plus, doing so keeps my administrators and technology specialists happy, which makes me look good.

I’m sure that there are other great site creators out there, but I have yet to be enlightened about what they are!  Please comment about what you use (or don’t use) and I will create a list here for the benefit of anyone considering embarking on this endeavor.