BevillBlog

Oh Wiki, You’re so fine…

Yeah, that was a terrible pun in the title, and I do apologize for it.

If you’ve ever been to Wikipedia, you have a pretty good idea what a Wiki is. At its most basic level, a Wiki is a collaborative website that anyone can edit. Now editing can be restricted to registered users or approved authors, but the principle is still the same. If two heads are better than one, than 6 million heads are better than one.

One of the key elements present in all of Web 2.0 is the idea of collaboration. No application puts this principle to the forefront like a Wiki. When using a Wiki, the reader can become the critic, the editor, or even the new author with a few clicks of the mouse. The grand idea is that multiple people working together can create something better than a single author. One of the “backronyms” for Wiki is “What I Know Is…” You write what you know…someone else writes what he knows…I write what I know…and all of us are smarter because of it.

Wikis in the Wild
If browsing Wikipedia is your only connection to Wikis, then you may need to take a look at how people are using Wikis for all kinds of things. The Librarian Chick is one of my new favorite sites. It is a Wiki, collecting links to various resources all around the Internet that are useful in research, writing, and education. If you know of a site that could be added to her collection, feel free to do so. It is a Wiki…that’s the point. Another one of my favorites is from Will Richardson. He uses a Wiki to collect and organize as much information on the uses of Web 2.0 in education as he, and his readers can find. Maybe one day I’ll add my own blog to the list. Bud the Teacher also uses a Wiki to display his blogging rules and student resources.

I used a Wiki to set up an online textbook for my film class. It was a really promising idea, and making that textbook probably could have been the main focus of the course, but I didn’t use it as often as I would have liked. I was still able to get some really good material from my students on the lab days where we focused on the site.

Starting a Wiki
Like Blogs, there are many online resources available to start your Wiki. Some of the best include PBWiki, Wikispaces, and Wikia. Some of the sites are easier to get started with than others, but all are pretty self-explanatory.

Other Ways to Collaborate on the Web
One of my favorite new web applications are online office suites. Google and Zoho are two of the most popular providers of online office applications right now. Both allow for collaboration and full integration with Microsoft Office files. Zoho has a few more options, including a notetaking application, and an online powerpoint application. All of these can be open to collaboration with the public or to private users.

My Wife Eve uses Zoho Show to archive her Powerpoint lectures on her websites for her students to review. Zoho provides a stripped down, easily accessed version of her Powerpoint slides that is much easier than converting a presentation into a webpage.

At my school, Kris Turner and Amber Owen use Google Docs to enable peer revision of pieces of writing. This provides almost a virtual writer’s workshop…where students can edit, change, and comment on each other’s papers. All changes are tracked through their user accounts. If these students have a Google account for the documents, they can also integrate that account with their weblogs from Blogger.com, further expanding the online community.

Ideas
There are many ways to foster collaboration through online applications. How would you do it? What would you use? What could work in your classroom?

March 12th, 2007 Posted by Scott | UWP, Education | 2 comments