Goals
- Learn what a wiki is and use one.
- Set up a wiki.
- Complete assignments 1-3 (below).
Learning Outcomes
- Identify a course topic that could be addressed using a wiki.
- Compare and contrast the educational uses of blogs and wikis in your course.
Wikis
A wiki is a collection of Web pages that allow a group of people to contribute to the pages and edit their development. The wiki itself is created by a community of contributors and editors. A wiki is set up in wiki software, which may be hosted on the World Wide Web (such as a free wiki site for anyone to join and use) or may be hosted on a company or individual server or computer.
Why use a wiki instead of a blog or a blog instead of a wiki? It’s really up to you and your needs or the needs of your students. To quote Dr. Stephanie Reynolds, a participant in Blue 2.0: “I think that blogs are best for sharing thoughts and ideas; I think wikis are best for sharing information and resources.” That’s a great way to put it! An example of a wiki you may have heard of is Wikipedia: information may be added by its readers in a collaborative format. Another wiki is Project Gutenberg, the collection of free book texts. Many people collaborate to bring non-copyrighted material to Project Gutenberg. Here are a few more samples:
- Death in Venice – A wiki developed by students reading Death in Venice to help each other understand the novel better. Very nice example.
- American Political Thought – A wiki developed for a course at the University of Kentucky
- Duke Wiki – Duke University
- Wiki.UKY.edu – SharePoint-based wikis at University of Kentucky.
- Computational Physics Wiki Pages – For a course at Cornell
Wikis can be set up for personal reasons, too, including family genealogy projects, group vacation planning, and more. A wiki can support nearly any collaborative effort that requires updating a document or information, such as a grant proposal or a conference presentation.
And the name? Several sources (including Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica) say that “wiki” is short for the Hawaiian wiki wiki (meaning fast), and that the first wiki, Wiki Wiki Web, was so-named because the creator remembered being told to take the Wiki Wiki Shuttle to get somewhere quickly from the Honolulu airport. A few sources claim that wiki is an acronym for “What I Know Is,” but that is generally considered a “backronym.”
Assignment #1 – Explore a Wiki
(Estimated time to complete: approximately 30-45 minutes)
- Choose a wiki (or more than one) to visit from any of the ones listed above (or make your own choice).
- First “click” your way around. How are pages connected? How do you get back to the start page if you want to?
- Next, use the search feature if there is one.
- Determine the dependability of this wiki or wiki article. Who is the author? Where does the information come from? How recently has it been updated?
Assignment #2 – Create a Wiki
(Estimated time to complete: approximately 60-90 minutes)
Want to use WetPaint for your wiki instead? Click here for instructions.
- There are several wiki services that you can use that are free and web-based. For this exercise, you can use any wiki that you prefer. This example will walk through using PBWorks, formerly PBwiki (if you choose a different wiki, it will likely have very similar options). Go to http://pbworks.com/.
- Click on the Get Started button (at right on page).
- Select a “solution” (such as Educational or Consulting) by clicking on it.
- You may have subchoices now (if you clicked on Education, you’ll have tabs for Classroom, Library, Campus, District/University). Explore and choose one by clicking on it.
- Click on the Try it Now button (at right on page).
- Select the Basic (Free) plan by clicking on the Select button.
- Fill out the form as appropriate and click Next.
- Check your email and respond to the confirmation message as directed.
- Make your security choices on the page that pops up when you confirm, agree to the terms, then click on Take me to my workspace.
- You will go to a welcome page. Click on the EDIT tab (top, near your wiki name) to begin your wiki.
- You can start fresh by deleting any text that is there already.
- Type in a question. It could be something like What are the barriers to student retention? or How do you plan to use wikis? See Patsy’s for an example.
- Click the save button (bottom).
- To the right (near the top), click on Create a Page.
- Once you name your new page, type your own answer to the question on your homepage and click save.
- Feel free to fiddle with the settings or create other pages. When you are done, click on the name of your wiki at the top left to take you quickly to the home page. (Your new page will show up in one of the boxes at right … scroll down – it may be at the bottom. Boxes can be dragged and dropped for re-ordering.)
- Looks like a worksheet, doesn’t it? That’s okay. That’s what a wiki is.
- If you are working through Blue 2.0 in a group, pair up with someone else and edit each others’ wikis.
- ***If you are working through these assignments as part of a group, be sure to email your wiki URL (the “address,” like http://sasasianhistory.wetpaint.com) to your instructor or coordinator.***
Assignment #3 – Reflections (Applications to Instructional Settings)
- First, in your blog (or in your wiki, notes or other reflections tool), describe a topic from your discipline or your course that would lend itself to a multi-user created webpage.
- Second, compare and contrast the use of blogs and wikis for your student population or your student population or your course.
Filed under: Assignment Modules | Tagged: module, wiki, wikis
