Thing 15: Wiki Wiki (Hawaiian for Fast)

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. With the benefits that wikis provide in collaborative projects, the use and popularity of these tools is exploding. Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are:

• Anyone can add, edit or delete content (if the wiki has no restrictions).
  
• Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
  
• Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed.
  
• Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content.
  

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, educators all over the country have begun using them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are subject guide wikis, book review wikis, conference wikis and even best practices wikis.

Here are some examples of popular wikis:

• Wikimedia Commons (a database of freely usable media files and images)
• WikiBooks (a library of educational textbooks)
• WikiTravel (a travel guide wiki)
• WikiHow (a database of online "how-to" manuals)
• TeachingHacks (a wiki with learning tools for teachers)
• The Academic Blog Portal (a directory of academic blogs)

Here are a few examples of wikis being used at colleges & universities:

• Messiah College
• Stanford Univeristy Wiki
  
• Ohio University Libraries Business Wiki
• San Jose State University (a wiki for students and alumni of their MLIS program)
• The Eckerd College Faculty Wiki
  

Discovery Resources:

• Wikis in Plain English (watch this video to better understand wikis)
  
• What is a Wiki
• Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not
  
• Using Wikis to Create Online Communities
  
• Ways to Use Wiki in Education
• When to Use a Wiki
  

Discovery Activity:

1. Read through at least 2-3 of the above resources to learn more about wikis and how they can be used.


2. Look at some of the different wikis that have been provided. While you browse through them, think about who the target audience is, what the purpose of the wiki is, and how well it seems to be fulfilling that purpose.


3. Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within colleges might work well with a wiki?

Some questions to consider: What have you learned about them? What are your concerns? What other kinds of projects would a wiki be a good tool for? Have you ever used a wiki, and what was your experience with it at that time? Or anything else wiki-related that strikes your fancy.