The What's and Why's of Wikis
Jennifer L. Wagner
Help Desk/Network Support
jlw@technospud.com
ACSI November 2007
What is a WIKI??
- A Wiki can be thought of as combining a Web site and a Word-processing document.
- At its simplest, it can be read just a regular web site, with no editing privileges possible,
- but the real power lies in the fact that teachers and students can work collaboratively work on the content of the wiki simply
- by using a standard web browser.
Why Use A Wiki?
- With the availabilty of a wiki 24/7/365 from pretty much anywhere, you have the opportunity to connect with anyone you wish....from your classroom to the world.
- A wiki is as easy to use as any word processing program.
- It is free (most of the time) with the availability of adding text, images, video, links, feeds, and more.
- It is editable but also you can trace the edits (or revisions) to see who has added/subtracted data.
- You can select who you wish to collaborate with by invitation (which allows security) or you can open it to anyone.
- You can roll back to prior edits if necessary.
- A simple SAVE updates the page instantly on the internet.
Where to create WIKI?
PB Wiki: http://pbwiki.com/education.wiki
Wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers
Media Wiki: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
WetPaint: http://www.wetpaint.com/wiki?zone=cyoGoEdu2
Educational Wikis
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis
http://k12online07.wikispaces.com/
Case Studies & Resources:
http://www.wikiineducation.com/display/ikiw/Home
http://writingwiki.org/default.aspx/WritingWiki/For%20Teachers%20New%20to%20Wikis.html
Wiki Concerns:
Wikipedia -- anyone can edit.
The British science journal Nature facilitated a study that examined the comparative accuracy of scientific entries in Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica in December of 2005. Nature found the two sources to contain a similar amount of errors, with each having 4 serious errors relating to misinterpretations of important concepts in the pairs of articles reviewed. A considerable amount of minor errors were also found in Wikipedia and Britannica according to Nature: "Reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 and 123 in Wikipedia and Britannica, respectively. (http://media.www.versusmag.org/media/storage/paper584/news/2006/02/01/Features/How-Accurate.Is.Wikipedia-1635972.shtml )
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