http://www.wikispaces.com/

The wiki is perhaps the second-most commonly discussed ‘innovation’ that defines Web 2.0 (second to blogging). A wiki is the pure form of the web as a read-write space – not a ‘published’ document, in web form, for consumption but a space that is open for those who wish / are allowed to edit it. Wikipedia, most of all, defines this form of knowledge networking: but wikis, generally, have a vast array of uses because they implement a fundamental quality of the web: communication, publication and revision all can occur within the same online space.

The basics

The developers of the first wiki software describe it this way: “Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself. Like many simple concepts, “open editing” has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.” (WhatisWiki)

Wikispaces, of all the wikis currently available, seems to offer the best options for educators – free, no ads, strong feature set (including WYSIWYG editing). While it is useful also to know something about the markup commands (which are ‘simple’ versions of html), Wikispaces can be used quickly enough without that knowledge. Wikis usually involve forums or discussion groups associated with pages, require good control over editing and viewing and wikispaces provides this.

Ultimately a wiki is not just a website (though it’s a quick way of creating one); nor is it a collaboration tool (though it can be used as such); nor is it a shared writing space (though again it has that capacity). A wiki is what you make it to be, by the choice of access permissions, edit rights, and the structure used. Wikis therefore show best how cultures of use, as much as technological affordances, define what we do with the Internet.

The elegance of Wikispaces is immediately apparent

Pedagogic Challenge

Wikis are often seen as collaboration tools which encourage editing, revision and improvements to the text and other material there. However students who are unfamiliar with wikis, or who simply can see a shortcut, may actually compose and create their content in other applications (including simple word processors) and simply paste it into the wiki (I have strong evidence of this behaviour from the use of wikis in my own teaching, based on analysis of the revision histories of over 100 students’ work). Therefore the challenge is not in getting students to use wikis but, rather, in getting them to embrace the idea of writing multiple times, of editing and correcting, and of being comfortable with sharing work that is partially done, ready for comments, leading to impovement.

Alternatives

Wikimatrix lists almost every possible variety of wiki application, including those which are hosted and those which must be installed on your own server. it has an excellent search and selection tool.

It is a sign of the success and importance of wikis that most of them now involve some kind of payment for the service. One relatively low-cost, more technically sophisticated wiki service is Wikidot, but perhaps Zoho’s relatively new wiki (part of a vast suite of online applications) could be a useful alternative

Springnote is a very interesting ‘advaned’ wiki that makes wikis work in a more culturally sophisticated way.

Read…

Before reading, look at this excellent discussion of the use of wikis from the COFA Learning to Teach Online series:

I have discussed wikis before at: Should you use a wiki for teaching (and which one?) (netcrit blog)

Cole, M. 2009. Using Wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches. Computers & Education, 52.1:141-146.

Elgort, I. et al. 2007. Is wiki an effective platform for group course work? Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 24.2: 195-210

Forte A. and Bruckman, A. 2007. Constructing text:: Wiki as a toolkit for (collaborative?) learning. WikiSym ’07  Proceedings of the 2007 international symposium on Wikis

Smith. A et al. 2010. Using web 2.0 technology in entrepreneurship education: Wikis as a tool for collaborative and collective learning. International Journal of Innovation in Education, 1.2