Wikis
A definition or overview of educational purposes of this application
Developed in the late 1990s by Ward Cunningham as a way of creating a ‘quick web’, Wikis are a ‘live’ website – that is, unlike websites where content is fixed, wikis enable content to be added. Some wikis require registration. Wikis are designed for collaboration. [ From ‘Using Wiki in Education’ ]
Classroom examples
- Education Channel
- Wikispaces for teachers, students, and educators; for K-12 education use is free and free of advertising. This site offers two examples of teachers using wikis
Hint sheets on how to use the application
Some readings
[We have focused on articles that are readily available at RMIT, usually via the Library’s databases and e-journals]
- Cole, M. (2008). Using wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches. Computers&Education (in press, corrected proof, available online 28 August 2008).
[Although focused on the higher education sector, this research reports on a failed experiment to use wiki technology to support student engagement. Argues that in an educational context, social technologies such as wikis are perceived differently, perhaps discouraging student participation] - Engstrom, M.&Jewett, D. (2005). Collaborative learning the wiki way.TechTrends; 49 (6), p12-15
[Reports on the use of a wiki to support inquiry and collaborative ‘real world’ research and problem solving among middle school students] - Goodwin-Jones, R. (2003). Emerging technologies. Blogs and Wikis: Environments for on-line collaboration. Language Learning & Technology, 7 (2) p12-16.
[Short, introductory and descriptive article] - Mindel, J. & Sameer, V. (2006) Wikis for teaching and learning. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Vol 18, p1-23. Retrieved 10 November, 2008 [This article covers introductory issues through to quite academic ones, as to the uses of wikis in education]
- Morgan, B. & Smith, R. (2008). A wiki for classroom writing. The Reading Teacher, 62 (1), p80-83
[A short article, focussed very much on the classroom, includes set up hints]