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.
