Deciding on a new classroom technology

I was approached by a teacher asking to learn about wikis.

Of course, I'm always excited when approached by any teacher to learn anything. But I'm also cautious.

We set up a meeting (and such meetings always go exactly as planned, don't they?). And the first question I asked was "What do you want to use this for?"

Its not about the tool. I think that one of the hardest things for an educational technologist (is that a real word?) is to over come the general teacher conception that "I have to use more tools in my class room."

Tools are just that. They are tools. The most amazing earth shattering web 2.0 tool is completely useless if you don't have an educational goal to match it. And my personal goal for myself is to never match a teacher to a tool for the sake of the tool.

And in this particular case, I wasn't really sure what the best way to go was. The teacher wants to be able to post information, and have students post information. She wants the students to research systems and create a discussion on what systems are the most important in the body (which in my opinion sounds like a really fun idea--I vote for digestive because none of the other systems let me eat chocolate).

In the end we decided to go with wiki after all. It seemed the most flexible to me. Time will tell if I'm wrong, but I think even if she doesn't need everything a wiki can do, a wiki can do everything she needs. And, the 5th grade group she wants to do this project with is currently working in computer class with me on editing a wiki to post information on revolutionary war heroes with the view of having a class discussion in Social Studies on who were the true heroes. It seemed pretty clear to both of us that if they are already learning a certain skill set, we might as well double dip. This option will also allow me to work with her as a teacher, and probably with the students, on tagging, which is a very important skill in my opinion. And I look forward to now going further than I was planning, and teaching the students to embed content, upload files, and create links.