Wikis – Technology Summary
Wikis are editable websites often used for collaboration between group members by providing a shared workspace. Wikis can be public or private, with individual privileges assigned to add, edit, and delete content. Many wikis are fully customizable, meaning that one can change the structure and text, pictures or other content formats. A web browser is the only requirement needed to work in a wiki, which means no programming skills are required. Wikis support collaboration, case studies, and critical thinking, and encourage student participation as well as enhance student motivation.
Advantages
- Improves knowledge sharing among students as well as knowledge construction within an academic environment (Elgort, Smith, & Toland, 2008; Raman, Ryan, & Olfman, 2005)
- Encourages learners to develop more critical thinking skills (Wheeler, Yeomans, & Wheeler, 2008)
- Promotes collaboration (Elgort et al., 2008)
- More than one person can edit the wiki (collective authority) (Prasarnphanich & Wagner, 2009)
- An excellent technology for communities (Prasarnphanich & Wagner, 2009)
- Provides instant publication of any content modification (Prasarnphanich & Wagner, 2009)
- Supports versioning or roll-back of older versions (Augar et al., 2004; Wheeler et al., 2008)
- Offers simplicity of authorship, low cost and low bandwidth (EDUCAUSE, 2005; Elgort et al., 2008; Prasarnphanich & Wagner, 2009; Raitman, Augar, & Zhou, 2005).
- Increases students’ motivation (Neumann & Hood, 2009)
Disadvantages
- Possible inappropriate postings from users with different information and content (Augar et al., 2004; Ebner et al., 2008; EDUCAUSE, 2005)
- Runs the risk of losing important information by the deletion from others (Augar et al., 2004; Ebner et al., 2008; EDUCAUSE, 2005)
- Students were afraid of their work being copied by someone else before the submission due date (Ruth & Houghtom, 2009)
- Does not support multiple, simultaneous editing of a wiki page (Matthew & Felvegi, 2009; Raitman et al., 2005; Wheeler et al., 2008)
Best Practices
- Set the tone right from the beginning, which means to let people know how to interact right from their first use of the wiki (eWEEK, 2007)
- Reward individual exceptional contributions even if these contributions are part of a required task or assignment (eWEEK, 2007)
- Organize the structure of your information in a simple way which makes it easy for adding or editing content (eWEEK, 2007)
- Integrate your wiki with your database so that your users will be able to create their own wiki dashboards for their daily activities (eWEEK, 2007)
- Security is essential and specifying permissions is important even at the individual page levels (eWEEK, 2007)
- Let wiki adoption grow rapidly where users send wiki links to other people in the organization or by emailing wiki pages which will make other people interested to participate (eWEEK, 2007)
- Include participation in a wiki as a mean of assessment which can enhance students’ participation (Neumann & Hood, 2009)
- Engage students in non-graded exercises to become familiar with the system as most learners are not familiar with it when they use it for the first time (Twu, 2009)
- Explain to the students the value of using a wiki in the instruction and how it will help them especially with High-Context Culture students (HCC) (Twu, 2009)
- Support harmony in social interaction so students don’t take offense when their posts are edited (Twu, 2009)
- Identify true identities of students and avoid anonymous identities (Twu, 2009)
- Encourage positive social relationships (Twu, 2009)
- Incorporate different social network applications such as Facebook, Myspace, and Ning (Twu, 2009)
- Encourage students to incorporate other web 2.0 tools to create their own Personal Management Environments (PMEs) (Twu, 2009)
- Build and facilitate online collaboration though communities (Twu, 2009)
- Allow time for students acclimate to a wiki environment before expecting them to build wiki communities (Twu, 2009)
Best Practices
- Demonstrate to students how to use RSS feeds to deliver information. These feeds allow students to obtain information with fewer steps and can automatically inform students of ongoing discussions without having to login to the system (Kim, 2008)
- Encourage students to allow other students to post comments on their own blogs (Pena-Shaff et al., 2005)
- Relate in-class discussion to the topics posted on the blog. Students tend to be more motivated to participate if the in-class discussion involves their own blog postings (Wang & Hsua, 2008)
- Prepare extra resources related to the topics posted by the participants to deepen the discussion. Links to these resources should be listed so they can be easily accessed (Wang & Hsua, 2008)
Apply this technology
How to Implement
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This Common Craft video explains how a wiki can be used to create a living document that is accessible and editable by many people. Different people can create, edit, and save online pages. |
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This YouTube video shows how to add a wiki to Blackboard 9.1. The example illustrates how the instructor creates a wiki for the students to collaboratively add new content and also edit existing content. The number of words edited and number of page saves are maintained per student as well as their percent contribution to the overall page. |
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Wikispaces and Pbworks are two wiki engines that offer a basic free service as well as upgrades for a fee. These pages provide a nice summary of some features to think about when starting a wiki. For Pbworks, be sure to check out their page on Features. http://pbworks.com/content/edu+overview?utm_campaign=nav-tracking&utm_source=Top For Wikispaces be sure to look at the additional information near the bottom of the page for higher education users. |
Real World Examples
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Wikipedia is probably the most famous wiki. This page in Wikipedia compares many different available wiki engines. Comparisons are made across general and important features, target audience, and the installation if you want to host on your own server. |
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Welker’s Wikinomics, created for a high school economics course, has won two awards for best in education. Check out what types of information is included and how the information is accessed through different navigational controls (a top banner tab system, a left-hand menu, and various embedded links). A ‘Rules of Conduct’ is even included for the student as well as a blog that is accessed from the ‘Discussions’ tab. The Course Information page includes a rubric for student grading. Home page: http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/ Course information page: http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/page/Course+Information |
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Wikia hosts many wikis sorted by their type of content, that is by entertainment, gaming, or lifestyle. You can connect with people interested in the latest hit television show, with fellow World of Warcraft gamers, or with cooking enthusiasts, to name a few. The home page provides a nice summary video of why to use a wiki. Be sure to visit a few wikis to see how content can be presented in a variety of layouts, colors, and navigation schemes. You can also create your own wiki through this web site. |
Practice
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George Mason University (GMU) conducts workshops on how to use Blackboard 9.1 including how to set up a wiki for your class. To find a GMU Blackboard workshop go to: |
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PbWorks provides online space for users. Their tchnical support includes an online blog for peer support, a user’s manual for step-by-step support, and webinars to help you get started. Additionally, quick tutorials are provided on the Support Center home page. |
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Wikispaces also provides online space for users but the free account may include text-based ads. The small annual fee prevents advertising and was waived for educators at one time. |
