Introduction
The wiki is not new. The original implementation is credited to Howard Cunningham who in 1995 created the wikiwikiweb. Cunningham chose the term wiki because the Hawaiian word means quick - hence a quick web. (Wikipedia description). The wikiwikiweb is available and you may want to take a look. One easy thing you can do at this site is add your name to the visitor's list (I added my name in July, 2007).
My own original experience with wikis came at a presentation given by a professor from a computer science department in the late 1990s. Thinking back, this was before the days of Web 2.0 application and the presentation emphasized the technology making an open, online web presence possible. At the time, my mind-set based in traditional HTML web pages and web page authoring probably prevented me from understanding possible implications. What I remember was that the system seemed very text-based and crude looking (take the link to the wikiwikiweb and you will kind of see what I mean). Some things have changed since that time. The multimedia capabilities of wikis and the interface for authoring wikis have improved. I also think our familiarity with popular wikis, most notably wikipedia, has encouraged educators to begin experimenting with applications in their classrooms. Now, the easy to use, browser-based, interactive, and multi-user characteristics of a wiki may possibly make this the prototype for participatory web applications.
Application Patterns
Again, our approach in discussing classroom applications is to identify patterns (or activity structures) rather than to describe specific projects. This is the same method we used in considering how educators might use blogs in the classroom (discussion of blog structures).
As a starting point, one broad distinction might be drawn between personal and group wikis.
Personal Wiki
A personal wiki, somewhat like a personal blog, allows an individual to build a body of content for public review over an extended period of time.
A wiki is well suited to helping an individual build a body of content over time because it is:
While public visibility contributes to the authentic nature of multimedia authoring in the form of a wiki, there are ways to prevent external review. If desired a wiki can be developed on a personal computer without an internet connection.
What type of tasks or projects are well served by this list of attributes?
Group Wiki
While a wiki can serve the needs of an individual, the focus on multi-author editing and the potential to return to earlier versions when needed are design features assuming group work. The type of tasks/functions we have described as serving the needs of an individual also apply to collaborative groups. A group can create a web site or collaborate in creating a summary of work in progress. Accumulating class notes was mentioned as an example of a summary of work in progress. Such a venture can also be a group venture. An area of my personal research activity investigates college student use of a wiki as a collaborative note-taking tool. In my research, I establish multiple wikis for a large, lecture-oriented class so that the number of students working on any given wiki is less than 50 individuals. Before each lecture, I open a new "page" and post an outline for that presentation. It is assumed that the outline alone would be insufficient as quality notes for that lecture. Students are encouraged to annotate the outline after class based on their personal notes (wikis are not suited to simultaneous editing) to create a "super" or complete set of notes for that presentation. Potentially, this composite contains information some students may have missed or different interpretations of what was discussed.
With the collaborative note-taking, the advantage of the wiki is as a tool for integration and error-checking. Potentially, students can cover for each other (and perhaps can cover for those who missed class that day). Wikis are also suited to forms of cooperative projects in which individuals are responsible for different topics or parts of a task. Students contribute in the area of individual responsibility, but review in all areas.
There are some other unique group activity structures.
By the way, a wiki allows the teacher to address one of the most consistent problems associated with cooperative learning; i.e., who contributes what. Wikis record the additions and deletions made any time a wiki page is modified and identify the individual responsible for the changes. A scan of this information can be quite helpful if concerns that some students are slacking are raised.
Unique Challenges
One of the unique challenges of the wiki environment is that it typically provides a system that is open to anyone. Even when encouraged, we are not used to editing the work of others. We probably feel comfortable adding new material, but modifying and deleting may make us feel uneasy.
Open systems also invite unwanted and inappropriate modifications. The idealist claims that the ease of reversing such changes acts as a deterrent and order will quickly be restored. However, this position does not protect an author from having his/her work altered and others possibly viewing some inappropriate content. The ideal approach also works much better for active sites with many viewers. The type of sites students may create and leave online could be altered and these changes remain undetected for some time.
There are some technological fixes:
If an instructor/school are concerned with unauthorized wiki modifications, software offering such features should be considered.
It would be fair to suggest that other tools have taken on many of the capabilities of a traditional wiki. For example, a Google doc can be "team edited" and even allows multiple authors to work simultaneously. A Google doc can also be shared for public view. The tactics we discuss here would also apply to group use of Google docs.
Resources
Examples
Content Area Literacy - College course that "emerges" from a wiki syllabus
References
Parker, K.R. & Chao, J.T. (2007). Wiki as a teaching tool. Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects, 3, 57-72.
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