Wikis

Wikis are wonderful tools to help enrich students' learning experiences and increase collaboration and communication among students, not only from within the class but also around the world. The basic premise of a wiki allows for many people to contribute by adding, editing, change and improving on the existing content through this collaborative approach. They can be easily updated when necessary. Wikis can host video, audio, presentations, PDFs, documents, screencasts and other multimedia formats. However, permissions can also be put in place so that only certain people can view or be allowed to change a wiki.

[|Wikipedia] is the most renowned wiki that is collaboratively created of shared knowledge and information.

[|Wikispaces], [|PBworks], [|Wetpaint] are popular choices for educational wikis.

media type="custom" key="5946699" align="left" This Common Craft video //Wikis in Plain English// briefly outlines what wikis are.

[|7 things you should know about wikis] from Educause

= USING WIKIS IN EDUCATION =
 * Students can use wikis to create to contribute to collaborative projects at any time, any location with Internet access for any subject. Students' individual contributions, and other versions, can be tracked.
 * Students can take part in writing collaborative writing tasks.
 * Wikis are good for collaborative learning portfolios for documenting a group's thought processes, vlaues, plans, actions and evaluations (Considine, 2008).
 * Schools or classes could create individual digital portfolios (wikifolios) for students to upload samples of work during the year, or even years of education.
 * Wikis can be the repository for class lessons and activities - different sections of the wiki can be used for different subject topic areas.
 * Collaborative projects involving classes nationally or internationally can be undertaken via a shared wiki.


 * [|50 ways to use wikis for a more collaborative and interactive classroom]**

media type="custom" key="6014359" align="left" Teachers from around the world have contributed to Tom Barrett's collection of ways to use wikis.

= Examples of wikis in classrooms =