Welcome to my presentation on wikis in education. I hope you find this site useful and informative. Click on a page to the left find out more about wikis in education.
What is a WIKI?
THIS WEBSITE IS A WIKI!
Wikis are free, online writing spaces. Wikis use simple formatting rules, so you don't need to understand HTML.
Wikis were named for the "Wiki-Wiki" or a Hawaiian adjective for "quick."
For some, wikis convey a highly collaborative view of composing and creativity. People who contribute to a wiki need to understand that their words may be deleted and changed by others. Wiki authors do not claim ownership of a text.
When writers contribute to a public wiki, their work could potentially be read by millions of readers.
Wikis give focus to the last draft, yet wikis provide a history. Each time the text is changed, a new version is saved. Anyone can go back later and see previous versions. This allows teachers and students to see the writing process in action.
Wikis are generally published online, though desktop and gated wikis are possible. Permissions can be set to limit the readers and writers who participate.
Textual authority is dialogical. Revision is privileged in the wiki. Each new reader can suddenly become a writer. The draft that matters is the last draft. Power and authority are given to the community rather than an individual or official staff.
Wikis are designed specifically as a writing space. They are not a presentation space nor a course management system. Wikis make it possible - and necessary - for writers to continually build upon, revise, and edit an emerging text.