Today's topic is another Web 2.0 Tool - a wiki. A wiki is a tool which much more collaborative than a blog. (A blog of course is a weblog, or online journal written by one person. Other users may comment, but it it not meant to be user-to-user interactive.) Wikiss let users CREATE content for the internet, rather than users passively reading content on the internet.
Wikis ARE meant to be interactive between users as they are written collaboratively. It is a giant knowledge base written by multiple users. (See wikipedia.org as an example).
Wikis could be used in with students. Using wikis brings the social aspect (Vygotsky would have LOVED wikis!) to working at one's computer. Students can collaborate to write wiki entries, both face to face and through the wiki itself.
Since students are writing the wiki, they are creating a work that shows their knowledge - it is a way to make them experts on the subject in order to create a "knowledge base" about it.
Teachers have the ability to see what students posted to a wiki, of course with a date and timestamp, to check for participation (both quantity and quality). Often, it is difficult to assess a student's level of particpation during group work. Using a wiki that tracks the aforementioned information is very useful!
I suggest wikis to teachers as a way for students to collaborate on writing a knowledge base that knows no bounds of time or space.
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