What are wikis?
A wiki is a web page that can be viewed and modified by anybody with a web browser and access to the Internet. Wikis are robust, open-ended, collaborative group sites. Wikis permit asynchronous communication and group collaboration across the Internet. Wikis are able to incorporate sounds, movies, and pictures; they may prove to be a simple tool to create multimedia presentations and simple digital stories. Wikis encourage democratic use of the Internet and promotes content creation by non-technical users. Barriers to modifying wiki pages are minimal because the interface is familiar to most web users and the syntax used for editing has a shallow learning curve. Each wiki page logs its own history so that users can revert back to previous versions of a page if undesired changes have been made.
Who uses wikis?
Wikis were first used by scientists and engineers in the mid-1990s to create dynamic knowledge bases. Wikis have been adapted as an instructional technology in the past few years and are being used for a wide variety of collaborative activities. In addition to compiling information, faculty and staff in higher education use wikis as repositories for meeting notes. Agenda items are contributed to prior to a meeting; notes added during the meeting are saved in a public archive. The ability to export notes to word processing software makes reporting easy and adds versatility to the meeting wiki. Students also find wikis very helpful when participating in group projects. Educators and students have found wikis useful in expanding community involvement in their subjects and activities.
Why should I use wikis?
Because wikis grow and evolve as a direct result of people adding material to a site, they can address a variety of pedagogical needs - student involvement, group activities, and so on. Since wikis reside on the Internet, students can access and participate from any location where they are connected. Wikis allow faculty and students to engage in collaborative activities that might not be possible in a classroom. A wiki’s versioning capability can show the evolution of thought processes as students interact with course material and each other. Wikis are a collaborative technology that promotes “pride-in-authorship” and ownership in a team’s activities.
Examples of use in education:
Seminar on Program Analysis for Software Security
Mainly used as a repository for links relating to programming.
http://www.prolangs.rutgers.edu/wiki/index.php/Reading_Group_Spring_2007
Talaga research group
Used for collaborative editing of research projects, as repository of notes and procedures, messaging between group members, and listing of tasks that need to be done.
http://talaga.rutgers.edu/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
RU Students Linux Users Group
Users post information about meetings, links to files, job information, software information, etc.
http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/w/
Collaborative Study on Romantic Literature
Users post and link materials and resources relating to authors, poems, and topics related to Romantic literature.
http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:8668/space/snipsnap-index
Networking and Internet Technologies
Has 2 wikis: UnknownTechStuff and UnknownSkills. Student created and maintained glossaries of technologies and technology skills.
http://trac.leozh.net/
Biology
Students add their own pages with journals and assignments and review each other’s work.
http://www.umbc.edu/bioclass/biol414/wiki/index.php?page=Home
(only 1 student page seems to work):
http://www.umbc.edu/bioclass/biol414/wiki/index.php?page=STEPHANIE_D_VADASZ
Blogs and Wikis Class
Participants develop nodes and areas of the wiki to address theories and practices of writing on wikis and weblogs.
http://ferret.bemidjistate.edu/~morgan/cgi-bin/blogsandwiki.pl?BlogsAndWikis
Case University Community Wiki
Reference information about all aspects of Case Univeristy (people, organizations, academics, etc). Any member of CU community can add and edit pages.
http://wiki.case.edu/Main_Page
For more information:
Overview of wikis.
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp
Links to articles on wikis in education and more examples.
http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?InsurgenceEmergenceConvergence/AdventuresInWikiland
http://www.wikiineducation.com/display/ikiw/Home
Wiki tools:
Comparison of features and characteristics of almost 100 different wiki tools.
http://www.wikimatrix.org/