What is a wiki? A wiki is a website that can be viewed and modified by anybody with a web browser and access to the internet.
Where are wikis found? Wikis reside on the internet.
When are wikis used? Wikis are most commonly used for teaching and learning in schools and higher education institutions. They are also used in corporations as well as by individuals.
Why use wikis? Wikis are used for developing content specific web sites that provide collaborative and flexible communication among its users.
Wiki is a Hawaiian word used as an alternative for quick. Wikipedia defines a wiki as "a web application which allows collaborative modification, extension, or deletion of its content and structure." Ward Cunningham developed the first wiki software and described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki).
Wikis in the Media Center
Apalachee High School (AHS) Media Center's wiki encourages online collaboration among the media specialists, teachers and students. The AHS Media Center web page connects three separate media sites:
ahsmedia.barrow.wikispaces.net is a collaborative wikispace that requires a membership to a private domain maintained by the Barrow County School District
ahsinfo.wikispaces.com is a public wikispace reserved as an archive of links and resources
ahsinfo.edublogs.org is a public blog to showcase new links and resources
Wikis in the Classroom
Amy Bowllan, a teacher who created an online lesson plan for the book, The Mzungu Boy, designed the lesson plan as a wiki. The students are able to use the wiki to research, outline, draft and edit a collaborative project on the book. They can also organize articles, site links, videos and other resources. Users can discuss the book and share papers for peer feedback. The link to the website is themzunguboy.wetpaint.com
Most effective use of wikis
Wikis are ideal for group projects that require collaboration. They allow users to contribute and share information and ideas, learn new information from one another, ask questions, and to be actively involved in the brainstorming, planning, creating and editing of a project. Users are able to upload documents, link to web pages, and insert audio clips, files, images, and videos to share with the group. All of the resources that are collected form the group members can be edited by anyone and stored on the wiki until someone deletes them.
Drawback to wikis
One drawback to using wikis is that all of the information that is posted can be edited and deleted by anyone that is a member. Another drawback is that the information provided may not be accurate.
Strengths of wikis
- Always accessible (if you have internet)
- Collaborative tool
- Creates networks
- Free
- Instantaneous
- User-friendly
- Web based
Weaknesses of wikis
- Can be edited by anyone
- Confidentiality and quality concerns
- Plagiarism and copyright issues
- Require access to internet (not everyone has access and sometimes internet connectivity is down)
- Too structured
- Disorganized information due to flexibility of the structure
Keeping wikis active
Some people see wikis as being nothing more than "storage cabinets." Wikis have been around a while however, they are fairly new to me. Up until now, I have not had much experience with wikis. I have stumbled across a few wiki sites when I was a classroom teacher looking for ideas for lessons and found a few to be resourceful but most of them were useless. I can see how wikis could easily be forgotten and end up providing outdated information and inactive links. Contributors and users of wikis must stay informed, involved and interested to continue ongoing collaboration. Advertisements, announcements and emails reminding members to contribute along with providing incentives for those who contribute are a few ways to keep wikis active.
References:
7 things you should know about...Wikis (2005). Retrieved January 27, 2015 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf
Apalachee High School Media Center's Wiki. Retrieved January 27, 2015 from http://ahsmedia.barrow.wikispaces.net
Bowllan, A (2008). A Wiki Gives a Worthy Book New Like. School Library Journal, 54(9), 20.
Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. Retrieved January 27, 2015 from http://www.libsuccess.org/Main_Page
"Wikis," from the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved January 27, 2015 from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/
