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Wikis

This page provides links to resources that take a look at the use of wikis for e-learning.

Articles in date order, most recent first.

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| 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 |

Use and potential of wikis in the classroom

"Ferris and Wilder argue that wikis provide one possible tool to help bridge the gap between teachers and students. They contend that wikis draw upon the best aspects of print and secondary orality by offering a medium in which information is neither fixed in format (as it was in the print age) nor limited to locale (as it was before the print age) but still changeable to meet the needs of the community, freely accessible to remote parties, and easily archived for future use." 
S Pixy Ferris and Hilary Wilder, innovate, June?july 2006, Vol 2, Issue 5

Added: 7 June 2006
Reviewer's Note:
"After addressing some of the debates that have characterized the legitimacy of wikis as learning resources, Ferris and Wilder illustrate and discuss potential uses for wikis in educational settings, and they offer resources for teachers interested in using such technology in their work."

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Wikis - a disruptive innovation

"Innovation is ranked a top priority by global CEOs. Yet, few CEOs manage innovation by linking strategy to structure. Currently, most CEOs focus on sustaining innovation practices vs. disruptive practices."  Cindy Gordon, KM World, 26 May 2006

Added: 5 June 2006
Reviewer's Note:
"Wikis are a disruptive innovation and provide a capability that knowledge practitioners have hungered for years to achieve."

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Wikis at work

"Wikis can bring a sense of involvement and innovation to an organization - if they're implemented wisely. We look at three different companies, large and small, who are giving wikis a try." Ezra Goodnoe, Internet Week, 3 February 2006

Added: 7 February 2006
Reviewer's Note:
Representatives of companies interviewed "all provided insight into how wikis typically find their way into corporations, what effect they have once they're there, and how they can be used most effectively".

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WikiMatrix

"your number one source to find the Wiki engine that matches your or your company's needs."

Added: 3 December 2005
Reviewer's Note:
Select the Wikis you want to compare, then press the button.

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7 things you should now about wikis

"Wikis are Web pages that can be viewed and modified by anyone with a Web browser and Internet access. Described as a composition system, a discussion medium, and a repository, wikis support asynchronous communication and group collaboration online. Their inherent simplicity gives students direct access to their content, which is crucial in group editing or other collaborative activities. Their versioning capability allows them to illustrate the evolution of thought processes as students interact with a site and its contents. Wikis are also being used as e-portfolios, highlighting their utility as a tool for collection and reflection. They may be the easiest, most effective Web-based collaboration tool in any instructional portfolio."  Educause, July 2005

Added: 18 July 2005
Reviewer's Note:
The "7 Things You Should Know About..." series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning practices and technologies. Each brief focuses on a single practice or technology and describes what it is, how it works, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning.

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Blogs and wikis: Technologies for enterprise applications

".. being dismissive of blogs and wikis because of how they are most often used, and talked about, today is a mistake (PCs and web browsers weren't considered as serious enterprise tools at first either). What is important is how they could be used. They are simply tools, and many of you will be surprised to find how much they are already being utilized in business environments."  Lauren Wood, The Gilbane Report, Vol 12, No 10, March 2005

Added: 3 March 2005
Reviewer's Note:
Lauren Wood provides a straightforward explanation of what they are, describes how they compare with content management systems, and reports on some telling examples of how blogs and wikis are currently being successfully used in enterprises.

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Teaching and learning online with wikis

"Wikis are fully editable websites; any user can read or add content to a wiki site. This functionality means that wikis are an excellent tool for collaboration in an online environment. This paper presents wikis as a useful tool for facilitating online education. Basic wiki functionality is outlined and different wikis are reviewed to highlight the features that make them a valuable technology for teaching and learning online." Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman and Wanlei Zhou, Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference, November 2004

Added: 7 December 2004
Reviewer's Note:
"The paper discuses a wiki project underway at Deakin University. This project uses a wiki to host an icebreaker exercise which aims to facilitate ongoing interaction between members of online learning groups. Wiki projects undertaken in America are outlined and future wiki research plans are also discussed. These wiki projects illustrate how e-learning practitioners can and are moving beyond their comfort zone by using wikis to enhance the process of teaching and learning online."

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Wide open spaces: wikis ready and not

"In 1999, the World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee looked back on the previous decade and lamented: "I wanted the Web to be what I call an interactive space where everybody can edit. And I started saying 'interactive,' and then I read in the media that the Web was great because it was 'interactive,' meaning you could click. This was not what I meant by interactivity." That vision of a genuinely interactive environment rather than "a glorified television channel"-one in which people not only would browse pages but also would edit them as part of the process-did not disappear with the rise of the read-only Web browser.1 It's churning away more actively than ever, in a vivid and chaotic Web-within-the-Web, via an anarchic breed of pages known as "wikis." Brian Lamb, Educause, Sept/Oct 2004

Added: 31 August 2004
Reviewer's Note:
"The needs met by wikis-easy authoring of Web content, open access, unrestricted collaboration-are simply not being satisfied by present IT strategies and tools ... Change is happening. What remains unknown is whether educators, institutions, and developers will join (or coexist with) the revolutionary forces or whether they'll stand their ground and simply be overrun."

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Educational wikis: features and selection criteria

"This report discusses the educational uses of the 'wiki,' an increasingly popular approach to online community development. Wikis are defined and compared with 'blogging' methods; characteristics of major wiki engines are described; and wiki features and selection criteria are examined." Linda Schwartz, Sharon Clark, Mary Cossarin, Jim Rudolph, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, April 2004

Added: 31 May 2004
Reviewer's Note:
"Although the evaluation team was able to locate numerous examples of the growing wiki trend in education, few were in distance education contexts. Yet wikis can provide an efficient, flexible, user friendly and cost-effective interface for collaboration, knowledge creation and archiving, and student interaction."

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WikiSchool Basic Course

"We will not focus on wiki history, wiki markup, and wiki features such as history links, nor will it try to encourage people to write. Instead, we'll try to teach how to write well even though we are on a wiki. We will explore various writing styles."

Added: 5 March 2004
Reviewer's Note:
Using a wiki to learn about wikis

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Wiki tools

"In many ways, wikis are the world's simplest Web sites. Any member can add or edit pages. Users need learn only a few simple formatting rules-no HTML required-and previous versions of pages are saved for easy recovery from errors. The wiki's content is built by all the members working together. If blogs are Web-based diaries, wikis are Web-based public bulletin boards." Neil J Rubenking, PC Magazine, 30 December 2003

Added: 4 March 2004
Reviewer's Note:
Reviews a number of wiki tools

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