Wikis as an educational tool

Wikis is a collaborative tool. Anyone can contribute to the article, add information, edit it. The famous Wikipedia is a wiki. Wiki can be opened to everyone or protected by a password. Wiki can be one of the tools on your Blackboard course.

Wikis conflict with tradition assumption of authorship (copyright and intellectual property). This issue should be addressed when a wiki activity is introduces.
Encourage ownership and autonomy.
Wiki Etiquette and Formats:
1. Show proper respect to other readers
2. Don't plagiarize
3. Stay on topic
4. At the end of your entry identify yourself as the author.
5. Size of the Wiki page: usually the size of the wiki page is that allows it to be printed on a single sheep of paper.
6. Naming links should not be generic. Pages become reference tools. Name them the way they will be easily used by other users.


Wiki in class:
to create an online text, one specific to your particular class, that you and your students can contribute to;
create a class Wikipedia;
create a Wikibook (see examples);
a collection of links, graphics, annotations, and reflections for the class;
create know-how;
take notes.

Examples of using wikis in education:
Classes:
Journalism Class by Paul Allison;
Encyclopedia:
PlanetMath.com
Creating textbooks - Wikibooks Takes on Textbook Industry (CNET News)
California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP);
High School curriculum - South Africa Curriculum;



Sources:
Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham. For Teachers New to Wikis.
Will Richardson. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, 2006.
UMBC. Eukaryotic Genetics and Molecular Biology course