Wikis - A Reflection of Wikis in the Learning Context of 'The Arts'

This week has seen my opinion of Wikis change dramatically. At the beginning of this week I thought that there couldn't possibly be a use for wikis in the context of The Arts. I can think of so many useful possibilities for other KLAs but none that would be interesting or most importantly useful in the Arts. Sure I could make the students go online and participate in a wiki for the sake of it but how does it really have an impact on their learning. That old question from the students 'What is in it for me' is always in the back of my mind.

Oh how wrong I was. The possibilities for The Arts on Wikis is ridiculous! You only have to visit all the major art gallery websites from around the world to know that they are a rich and valuable resource and a wiki is a great way to share these resources with each other.

You can have a look at my example of using a wiki for a Visual Arts unit here: exploringthearts.wikispaces.com
It builds on the idea that the students can use the wiki for multiple facets of the unit.

1. The students would use the wiki as a tool to find a partner in the classroom they would like to represent in a portrait. 
2. The wiki would be used as a central point to post valuable research tools and examples of work of other artists doing the same sort of thing. The students share their findings on the wiki and build up a resource library
3. Activities within the unit would require discussions on the wiki about art works

Something that is very important when using this kind of technology to benefit a unit of work is the issue of legal, safe and ethical use of content and comments. In this unit of work there would need to be a focused lesson on safe use of the internet in this context as well as the importance of referencing links, videos and other artists work. I would give the students guidlines on how to do this as it is so easy to post a link online and forget that the work belongs to someone else. Even I'm guilty of doing this. I would also need to ensure that before any students work is published online that I have consent to do so.

I can now see many wonderful possibilities for Wiki's in the learning context of The Arts