More on Wiki's.

So I think everyone knows what a Wiki is don't they? Rather than defining it for you, here is the link to Wikipedia, which is probably one of the most commonly used Wiki's, much to the dismay of many educators.

Reading an article in Guide2Digital learning entitled, "Turbo Charged Wiki's: Technology Embraces Cooperative Learning," I found that there was much more involved in Wiki's than I first thought.

Now of course, you don't throw a website at your students and tell them to run with it but this article has some great points on how to get not only your Wiki started but how to get your students to positively interact and cooperate effectively with one another. What a great concept; plan before you do.

Summarizing, the article suggests that the students should be doing collaborative work before ever attempting a Wiki. Also, the project must possess two things: a authentic problem which must be solved collaboratively and the final product must be of some use to someone else, some other audience, like perhaps the rest of the class. And of course, for the Wiki to succeed, the educator must instill the five properties of collaborative learning, which as a new education student, were pretty much foreign to me, at least in writing.

Regardless, I would like to know what amazing things that you all, whomever is reading this, is doing with Wiki's. I would also love to know the major downfalls and difficulties you are having with them for I truly believe that they could have a tremendous positive impact on collaborative learning.

Image Source: WikiMedia Commons