"The Charlottesville school division is harnessing the efficiency of technology to make scripting lesson plans easier for its teachers.

A cadre of city teachers is being trained for the fall to use “Wiki” Web sites - sites that can be directly edited by anyone who has access to them. The success of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that is maintained by volunteers and revised by almost anyone with Internet access, has sparked an interest in fostering open-source online communities that focus on the free sharing of ideas.

Charlottesville Superintendent Rosa S. Atkins said that by sharing effective lessons that also cover Standards of Learning concepts, division teachers could save preparation time. They also could avoid reinventing lessons, and instead glean suggestions from proven ones.

“It will be a handy resource for all of our teachers who may be spending hours in the afternoon preparing lessons for the next day,” Atkins said. “Now they have at their fingertips high-quality lessons that they can select from.”

By using Wikis, city teachers will be able to edit lesson plans directly on a Web site and not need a crash course in computer languages, such as HTML, to do so. They will also be able to tailor the lesson to fit their grade level by tweaking its complexity.

“It’s an easy way to edit, so it doesn’t seem so cumbersome,” said Jenine Daly, instructional technology resource teacher for Charlottesville High who will be showing teachers the new Wiki way this fall. “I think it’s something that’s been a buzz in conferences the last few years.”

City teachers will need a password to gain access to the online lesson plans and their department heads must approve any edits that are made.

Department coordinators are still considering whether to include a discussion board or Web blog for teachers so they can share how their students respond to the lessons and how they would improve upon them.

“We know we’ve got to get students globally prepared, and in order for that to happen, we have to get our teachers prepared at that level,” said Vada Fallica, the English department coordinator for city schools.

The idea of allowing teachers to share educational strategies that pique students’ interests and produce results has taken a global scope.

A nonprofit group centered in Washington launched a Web site this year called Curriki.org, a play on the words “curriculum” and Wiki.

The site allows anyone who registers free access to curricula and instructional guides geared toward students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The group has been speaking with ministries of education in the United Kingdom and India so that educators from around the globe can connect, said Barbara Kurshan, executive director of Curriki.

“We’ve taken the Wiki idea and educationized it,” Kurshan said. “It offers a way for teachers around the world to create a community.”" (Matt Deegan, The Daily Progress, July 30, 2007)