Using Wiki's for Professional Development

I have yet to decide if I am a true fan of Wiki's. I enjoy that multiple people can add to them, but I do not like that only one person can work with them at a time. This can be frustrating for someone that has a busy schedule and needs to plan out their work time. I can see how a blog would be nice in comparison as long as you know ahead of time who the blog belongs to and if they have professional credentials, in addition to multiple people being able to use it at once. However, using a wiki could be great for getting ideas. I always look for new ideas to present the same materials, as many of my students need that. Sometimes the first three ways do not work but that fourth way you finally see a spark. I also see them as a positive way to find more age appropriate materials. Often times the skills of some of my students are low but they still have high school interests so talking to other educators about how to tie these two together would be great. Even as I looked through many different wiki's I noticed that they all were focused on age or grade appropriate materials. I believe if I started following some of these and adding to them I would begin to see more relevant materials for some of my classes. Even as I looked through wiki's titled Consumer Math the skills being addressed would be to high for my students. I believe that since this is new, as I dig in deeper, relevant materials for my specific uses will come out.