What Why & How to Wiki

Wiki 101: How To Get Started

What are Wikis:
For the Wiki wikipedia entry click here
To see Google's collection of definitions click here

Watch:
Video: Wikis in Plain English
Video: Blogs vs. Wikis
Video: Anatomy of a Wiki

Why Wiki

*Quick, Easy, and Free Web Publishing
* Take a constructivist model of learning by having students create meaningful and authentic learning products
*Builds Community
*Good for remote asynchronous collaboration
*It's democratic

See Also
Email vs Wiki Collaboration
Read Only vs. Read Write Web

How to Wiki
Choosing a Wiki Services
Google Sites (wiki): The Easiest Way to Start a Free Webpage
How to Track & See Wiki Changes in Google Sites

Email vs Wiki Collaboration

wiki_collaboration2, originally uploaded by edvibesproducer.

An effective visualization of the problems with email collaboration and how wiki's make collaboration easier

Choosing a Wiki Services

There are a couple of big and complicated matrices and comparison charts for software and web-based wiki services. But for educational purpose the four easiest and most popular web services are:

http://sites.google.com/

http://pbwiki.com/academic.wiki


http://www.wetpaint.com/


http://www.wikispaces.com/

I personally prefer google sites since I am a big fan of all of google's services and sites allows you to mashup and combine all into it's wiki.

How to Track & See Wiki Changes in Google Sites

(click on the image to see a zoomed in and clearer version)

One of the challenges of Wikis as a "live" document is keeping track of all the changes and edits from all the members of the group. I have taken a screen shot of a google site (wiki) page to show you three places you can check to see any changes that have been recently updated. There is also a subscribe to this site or page option where you can get an email alerting you every time the wiki has been updated and how.

Google Sites (wiki): The Easiest Way to Start a Free Webpage

1) Go to Google Sites Overview Page watch the tour and read up

2) If you don’t have a Google Account sign up for one

3) Watch some tutorials from a Youtube Playlist from Google to get you up and started:



At least watch these:
How to create a new google site
How to edit a google site
How to embed content into a google site

4) Explore and start building

Video: Anatomy of a Wiki

YouTube - Anatomy of a Wiki: Using Wikispaces, they take you through a nice tour of all the main components of a wiki such as the navigation, history, and discussion

Video: Wikis in Plain English

YouTube - Wikis in Plain English

Video: Blogs vs. Wikis

YouTube - Blogs vs. Wikis: A fictional debate between JFK and Richard Nixon on the propriety of using blogs vs. wikis.

One main separation I have heard a lot of educators use for the students and educational purposes, blogs are for opinions, ideas, and journaling whereas, wikis can be used for facts, resources, and projects.