Ken has a great idea, with an especially loud “Amen!” to the last line:
I’m thinking of asking students to contribute an article to Wikipedia this semester — has anyone tried this with a class? We’d want to study the site and describe the traits of an excellent piece there, then work through some drafts. All in keeping with my new goal of making something of use to others in every class. Stop assigning things meant to be thrown away at the end of the semester, I tell myself, or at least cut back on that practice.
In the first comment to my piece, Tim Mansfield links to a good example of his high school students writing a Wikipedia entry — start here:
http://www.mchron.net/site/edublog_comments.php?id=P2928_0_13_0
This sounds like something that I’d like to do. I wish I were more fluent in wikis.