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Wiki In Education 1
Running head: WIKI IN EDUCATION: ADDRESSING TEACHING STYLES ANDDIFFERENTIATIONWiki in Education: Addressing Teaching Standards and DifferentiationRichard JoffrayArgosy University November 11, 2007E6331 Curriculum Theory and Design
 
Wiki In Education 2
Wiki in Education: Addressing Teaching Standards and DifferentiationDemands in the current teaching environment for standards based teaching has left manyeducators grasping for solutions for addressing the continually diversifying student body and stillaccomplishing a required standard of curriculum. While scurrying to cover all of the requiredstandards to ensure that most of the students obtain a high quality of knowledge, teachers areleaving behind both the student below and above the median.The very definition of teaching through differentiation conflicts with teaching standards.Students are individuals and should be addressed as such rather than forcing them to a standard.Differentiation must support and not substitute a high quality curriculum and instruction.Good teaching focuses on the understanding and skills of a discipline, causes students tograpple with ideas, causes students to use what they learned in unique ways, helps studentsorganize and make sense of ideas and information, and aids students in connecting what theyhave learned with real world experiences (Brandt, 1998; Danielson, 1996; Schlechty, 1997;Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).Further understanding of the conflict between standards in curriculum versus focusing onindividual learning styles may ultimately be blended to create an environment that addressesstandards and curriculum as “what to teach” and differentiation as “how to teach”. Finding aframework that compliments both the planning stages of teaching as well as a practical platformmight seem to be hoping for the impossible. Frameworks that naturally coincide with standardsof curriculum and allows for differentiation of instruction should be the ultimate goal.
 
Wiki In Education 3
In this new digital age of communication, the Internet has become a common playingfield for learning and exploration of most students today. In order to get the attention of moststudents, we as educators must speak the same digital language (Prensky 2001) as our students.Because information on the Internet is accessed the same from almost anywhere in the world,addressing cultural diversity while integrating this digital language and organization into ourcurriculum has become of utmost importance in order to assure that students understand and canfilter the vast amount information available to them. One platform that is playing an integral rolein bringing digital communities of the new age learners together to collaborate on a quest forknowledge is the use of a wiki.“A wiki is a type of computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, power community websites, andare increasingly being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets or foruse in Knowledge Management. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb,originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work". One of thebest-known wikis is Wikipedia. (Wikipedia 2007)Standards With WikisAs curriculum planners and educators, a wiki can be a rapid development arena thatallows us to create a structure to facilitate communication between teachers and supervisors andbegin the stages of planning that are necessary to integrate standards based requirements and thecurrent lesson plans of individual teachers. The ease and accessibility of a wiki technology
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