As I write my last Wiki Tip as Educational Ambassador for Wetpaint, I've been thinking about what my parting words of advice would be to the educational community that has formed here. By the time most of you read this, there will be over 3000 members to this support wiki. A wiki that just over a year ago only had around 700 members. For the most part, these people are educators just like me who come here for support and to support others in using this wiki platform.

As we move forward, let's not forget the purpose of this wiki and the reason we use wikis with our students. Wikis help us to form communities. Whether they be learning communities or support communities, the real power of the wiki platform is that it allows people (students) to come together and create content on a subject they are passionate about.

This wiki community is just that, and all of you serve as a prime example of why we should be using wikis and introducing wikis to students in our schools. The Discussion Forms here are filled with teachers helping teachers, and lists of wiki sites that exemplify the use of this tool in the classroom environment.

Yes, the no cost ad-free wikis might be gone, but the community of users and supporters lives on and will continue to in this space. As a new school year begins, let us remember the true use of a wiki site. Yes, they make for great easy edit websites that can be locked down in a producer to consumer scenario in our classroom. But the true power of this tool is in the conversations, connections and communities that are allowed to take place within a wiki site. Web 2.0 is about just that, allowing all of us and our students to become prosumers of information. We produce and consume information together as a community. Whether your community is a classroom, a school, a district, or other educators, find ways to engage your wiki community in not only consuming information but becoming passionate enough to produce it as well.

This community is passionate about the tool that is Wetpaint and supporting each other in its use within the walls of our classrooms or schools. But the tool is just a tool without a vision of how it can foster learning within our schools and for our students. That is the role of the educator, to have a vision of the journey that is learning for each child in our class, or student within our school. The tools will come and go, but having a passion for learning and a vision of how these tools can foster deeper understanding within our education systems is what being an educator is really about.

I enjoy this community and will continue to be a part of it as I myself have some 6 wikis that use Wetpaint. I still strongly believe that it is the easiest and most appealing free wiki platform available to use today. I will continue to use it to make sites for my own classes and schools as is appropriate and I look forward to many more discussions in the forms on this site.

So here's to you....the community that is WikisInEducation.Wetpaint.com...may your 09-10 school year be filled with learning, passion, and laughter.

Signing off,

Jeff Utecht
Twitter: jutecht
LinkedIn: Profile Page
Website: http://www.jeffutecht.com
Main Blog: http://www.thethinkingstick.com
International Blog: http://www.utechtips.com
Educational Software wiki: http://wiki.utechtips.com


Wetpaint Wikis:
Presentation Wiki

Teaching & Learning in a Networked Classroom Graduate Course (taught 2007-2009)

Learningdigital.org - A conference in Jakarta

U Tech Tips - Software for Educators

EARCOS Teacher's Conference

Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy (SUNY Graduate Program)