What+is+a+Wiki?

=__What is a wiki?__= toc

1. Introduction
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a wiki is “a website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users.” The term was first used by Ward Cunningham, and it is from the Hawaiian “wiki-wiki” meaning quick. They are open pages and sites that allow users to both create and edit content as well as the look and feel of the online space. Wikis are not passive sites or pages, but rather they actively engage users in the creation of content. Wikis can range from completely open in nature, i.e. Wikipedia, to private communities of users, like my wife’s field hockey team who use a private Wikispaces page to analyze and discuss video clips from practice sessions. Their simple markup language, in plain text, makes them accessible to almost anyone, and they have changed the way we view web content from simply accessing information to creating it.

2. Impact on Education
According to a recent post on Wikispaces’ blog, they have “given away **980,000** free classroom wikis for K-12 education.” Although trying to track down data on the impact wiki usage has had on achievement, it is hard to deny that wikis aren’t having an impact on education when almost one million K-12 educational wiki accounts have been given away from a single provider. In terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy, especially the revised version, wikis are the top of the heap. In every pyramid or triangle that has been studied by pre-service teachers since the early 1990’s, the word “Create” has been placed at the top of the higher order thinking skills. Wikis exemplify this creation in a uniquely 21st century way as shown in this image from Michael Fisher below. Notice the Wikispaces logo right up at the top. Wikis have the capability of transforming our classrooms from the passive, “sit and get” nature they have been into interactive, constructivist learning communities.

A wiki environment promotes collaboration and has been suggested to improve writing skills because of the inherent, public nature of the environment. In addition to the empowerment students feel from creating content that is publicly available by anyone online, “publishing online leads to an increased sense of responsibility and more accurate writing,” according to Sarah Guth (2007). Students tend to take their writing more seriously when they know their audience could include anyone in the world, not just the teacher who assigned it. Further, the collaborative nature of a wiki encourages students to learn valuable teamwork and etiquette skills so desired by their future employers.

3. Issues and Implications
One of the biggest discussions in education today related to wikis is the trustworthiness of their content. One of the biggest assets related to wikis is also their main drawback: they can be created and edited by anyone. Wikipedia has recently been in numerous public debates from Edutopia to NPR stories to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as to whether content found on the site can be trusted. Most stories arguing against the use of Wikipedia as a source (such as [|this one] from the Seattle times) cite glaring inaccuracies that Wikipedia pages contain, but proponents are always quick to point out that Wikipedia contains a comparable number of errors as compared to its print/digital cousins such as Encyclopedia Britannica. See below for a clip of Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, explaining this himself on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Because wikis are open to the public and available to anyone with a connection privacy concerns must be paid attention. Students must be educated as to how to remain safe in an online environment by protecting personal information and keeping their identity safe as well as being cognizant of online threats that may arise. However, wikis can be an excellent place to teach students these skills. Students will increasingly be creating online content, through wikis, social networking, and other online tools, and this content will not always be monitored by an instructor in the way a wiki classroom assignment will be. This gives teachers a great way to teach students this important concept of internet safety. As with any online application, educators must also take into consideration the access students may or may not have to the internet from home. This is not necessarily a concern that should prevent teachers from using wikis in class, however it must be kept in mind by teachers if student access to the internet is an issue for their students and computer lab time must be afforded to students if wikis are going to be utilized.

4. The future
Returning to Carole’s blog post from Wikispaces, not only has Wikispaces given away 980,000 free wikis for K-12 use, they are dedicating themselves to give away over 2,000,000 educational wikis with higher education included. This implies that 1) wikis are going to become even more popular in our K-12 schools and 2) teacher training programs will most likely be exposing our future teachers to the use of wikis, which will undoubtedly increase their use in schools as more teachers will be familiar with their use. Just this past month I was having a discussion with our Jr. High technology teacher, who is very near retirement, and she has begun using wikis with our 7th grade students for the first time this year because she happened across an article discussing them. This highlights not only the popularity wikis are experiencing in our schools, but also how easy they are to learn to use and implement. The learning curve for using wikis, because of the inherent simplicity in the editing language, is very short; and the number of different ways they can be implemented is up to the imagination of the instructor.

5. Web/Journal Sources
wiki. 2011. In //Oxford// //English Dictionary Online//. Retrieved from @http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1306371

Wiki. (n.d.). In //Wikipedia//. Retrieved from @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

Carole. (2011, February 28). Free wikis for educators: K through 12 through PhD [Weblog]. Retrieved from @http://blog.wikispaces.com/2011/02/free-wikis-for-educators-k-through-12-through-phd.html.

Visual Blooms (Wiki) Retrieved from http://visualblooms.wikispaces.com/

Guth, S. (2007). Wikis in education: Is public better?. //WikiSym ‘07, p. 61-68//. doi:10.1145/1296951.1296958. Retrieved from @http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.102.3123&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Olanoff, L. (2007, November 21). //School officials unite in banning Wikipedia.// Retrieved from @http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2004025648_wikipedia21.html

Simmons-Duffin, S. (2011, January 12). //Wikipedia at 10: Plenty of fans, even among critics//. Retrieved from @http://www.npr.org/2011/01/12/132842208/wikipedia-at-10-plenty-of-fans-even-among-critics

Albanese, R. & Stewart, J. (Producers). (2011, January 5). //The daily show with Jon Stewart episode 16003// [Television broadcast]. New York, NY: Comedy Central.

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