User-Generated Content in Education/Wikis in Education

Wikis in education
A wiki is an online tool used in education by teachers and students to collaborate and create new user generated content together in an easy to use website. With a wiki, users only need an internet connection and a computer to collaborate Wikis can be used for many purposes, including organizing a group's input. This can be a powerful tool when used in the classroom. Wikis are used in schools to extend the classroom and the learning space. Students can update and change a document not only with students in the same class but across the same grade level or the entire school. Students can even use wikis to collaborate with students in another country. Educators can use wikis to collaborate with one another about curriculum across the entire school districts or with educators worldwide.

What is a wiki?
A wiki is a simple and fast website that enables people to collaborate to create a website together, with no need to learn any complicated code. Wikis can be used for a variety of purposes, but can be especially helpful when used for education. Wikis are easy to edit and rely on the knowledge of regular people to edit them. Entries and editing should be completed from a neutral point of view.

Wikibooks Library Icon



History
The first wiki ever created was called WikiWikiWeb. It was created by Ward Cunningham. He got the name from the Hawaiian "wiki" meaning quick. By far Wikipedia is the most famous wiki with the greatest sum of human knowledge. Some people think it is the most important website on the Internet. In 2009, IP addresses owned by The Church of Scientology were banned from Wikipedia for making edits from a non-neutral point of view.

What you need to get started
You’ll need a computer and internet connection. If you have these all you need is a wiki platform or web application. You’ll need to visit one of these sites, create an account with them, and you’ll be editing your very own wiki in no time.

Popular educational wiki sites
Some of the best examples of wiki applications that can be used for the classroom are wikispaces and pbwikis. Both can be used to create classroom wikis that are either teacher or student lead.

http://www.wikispaces.com

http://pbworks.com

Why use wikis for education?
Wikis are ideal for education because they are free, easy to use, and enable students and teachers to generate their own content. With most wiki internet applications teachers can monitor who is posting what content. You can organize an entire course on a wiki. Students need to learn to work with one another in school to be successful in college and the workplace. Wikis need to be used to promote collaboration in the classroom. Wikis can be used to complete team projects. As students work in their teams they can revise and update the information as needed. Writing is one of the most important skills that we learn in school. Wikis can be used to complete collaborative writing projects in any subject not just English. In addition to enabling collaborative content creation, wikis can also be used for peer assessment, formative evaluation of student work, individual, as well as group reflection, on learning experiences, and up-to-date information regarding changes in collaborative spaces, and can be used in the development of authentic learning tasks.

Examples of uses for wikis in education
Online books

Class website

Class encyclopedia

Posting class projects

Advantages of using Wikis in the classroom

 * A quick way to collaborate with classmates through text
 * Easy to create simple websites
 * Project development
 * Group Authoring and Peer Review
 * Data Collection
 * The end project is the result of the group, not just an individual
 * Track a group's progress
 * Another presentation tool
 * Relatively simple technology to use
 * Sparks higher level, critical, analytical, and analogical thinking
 * Fosters a community learning environment
 * Can promote creative, intuitive and associational thinking (creative and associational thinking in relation to blogs being used as a brainstorming tool and also as a resource for interlinking, commenting on interlinked ideas).
 * Potential for increased access and exposure to quality information.
 * Combination of solitary and social interaction.

Disadvantages of using Wikis in the classroom

 * Subject to individuals posting inappropriate content
 * One students doing "all of the work" for the group
 * Monitoring challenges
 * Avoiding "Copy and Paste" work
 * Ensuring students give others credit through citations