Wikis

=Wikis= What is a wiki? Click on this video entitled //Wikis in Plain English,// created by Lee LeFever and found on Teacher Tube, to see... media type="custom" key="878907"

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Wiki as "A collaborative website whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it." In Hawaiin wiki wiki means "quick". Wikis are easy to create and view and can be set up to allow anyone to add, edit and remove content. They are great for collaborative lesson plans/units. Wikipedia is the largest and most well known Wiki in the world. It is a free online encyclopedia that is built by its users. That is the good news and the bad news. If the pages in Wikipedia that you are reviewing are built and revised by experts in that topic you can find an amazing wealth of information. However since anyone can edit those pages, they can also be filled with inaccuracies. Since Wikipedia is an international phenomenon, you can search in multiple languages on Wikipedia. Find the Wikipedia home page at: [|http://www.wikipedia.org/.]

**W** **hat is the difference between a wiki and a blog?** Source: http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/ "A blog, or web log, shares writing and multimedia content in the form of “posts” (starting point entries) and “comments” (responses to the posts). While commenting, and even posting, are open to the members of the blog or the general public, no one is able to change a comment or post made by another. The usual format is post-comment-comment-comment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are often the vehicle of choice to express individual opinions. A wiki has a far more open structure and allows others to change what one person has written. This openness may trump individual opinion with group consensus."

**Examples of Free Wikis for Education**

 * **Wikispaces** - This is one of the most popular. For a free membership and to start creating your own Wiki, go to: http://www.wikispaces.com/. For a PowerPoint presentation on what a Wikispace is and how to create one, go to: http://help.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Help.Wikispaces.Teacher+Presentation.ppt.
 * **Jottit** - This is a quick and easy Wiki. For more information, go to: http://jottit.com/about.
 * **PBWiki** - According to their Web site, "PBwiki is the world's largest provider of hosted business and educational wikis. We host over 400,000 wikis, serve millions of users per month." For more information, go to: http://pbwiki.com/
 * **Wetpaint** - You can find another free for educators Wiki site at: http://www.wetpaint.com/category/Education

**Ideas and Resources for Using Wikis in Education**
> The good folks at TeachersFirst have used their expertise to provide a clear, concise guide to Wikis in their Wiki Walk-Through. Just roll over and through their questions to unravel "the wonderful world of wikis" http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
 * **EduWiki** - Check out http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/ for some examples and tips as well as some teachers who might have some ideas for you.
 * **Help for Teachers** - To find help for techers when using Wikis, go to: http://www.wikispaces.com/help+Teachers. By the way, if you create a Wiki without knowing about the free education Wikispaces, you can click on Manage Space and then click on Subscriptions and email a request to Wikispaces to remove the advertising. It may take a day or two but they will do it. You just have to state that the site will be used for education only. Yahoo!!
 * **Wiki While You Work: An Introduction to Wikis in Education** - For some examples of how to use Wikis in education, go to: [|www.wikiwhileyouwork.wikispaces.com]
 * **Wiki Ideas for the Classroom** - [|Wiki Walk-Through from TeachersFirst] Dec 7, 2006 3:16 pm
 * **Wiki Warranty** - Click on this link to go to a downloadable, customizable Word document from Teachers First: http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/issues.cfm. Even though your district has an Acceptable Use Policy, having your students develop and sign a Wiki Warranty warranties the content of their collaborative Wiki in the same way that companies provide warranties for their products.

**Wikis for Educators and Students**

 * **Educational Wikis from A to Z** - Click on this link for a wiki with links to a variety of teachers' wikis arranged in alphabetical order by subject area: http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis
 * **Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg** - Click on this link to go to a Wiki created by Rebecca Pilver and Donna Drasch, EASTCONN Staff Developers, which allows teachers and students to participate in a phenomenal collaborative online project based on Connecticut's own Nutmeg Books Award: http://nutmeg2009.sblc.wikispaces.net/