A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content.
Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools, but with benefits that wikis provide the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.
Some of the benefits that make the use of wikis so attractive are:
· Anyone (registered or unregistered if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
· Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
· Earlier versions of a page can be rolled back and viewed when needed.
· Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content.
Watch this CommonCraft video. It illustrates a wiki "in Plain English" very well.
Atomic has an explanation of what Wikis are too. Theirs is set around PBworks Wiki and that is not the Wiki that our district wants us to use, however the explanation is still good. Wikispaces is the one we should use in BISD.
- PBworks - Wiki Workshop
- A. Using Wikis in an Educational Setting
http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/en/pbwiki
Activities:1. Watch the Common Craft video and the the Atomic Learning session on Wiki’s. How could you use this in your classroom/library? What are some of the positives about using a Wiki verses just paper and pencil? How do Wiki’s compare to blogs?
2. Compare Blogs and Wikis. Which do think is easier? Good and Bad for both?
3.Either set up a wiki or create a plan on how you could use this either with your students or with your colleagues.
