Wikis

From LIS 460 Summer 2007

Wikis

What is a Wiki?

The simplest online database that could possibly work. --Ward Cunningham

The first Wiki was developed in 1995 by Ward Cunningham and named Wiki as a shortened version of the Hawaiian WikiWiki meaning quick.

According to Wikipedia, the best known wiki, a Wiki is defined as the following: A wiki enables documents to be written collaboratively, in a simple markup language using a web browser. A single page in a wiki is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire body of pages, which are usually highly interconnected via hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing and searching information.

Here is a great YouTube description of how a Wiki works [1]

Wikis and Collaboration

A main advantage to the Wiki is the real time editing that can be done to pages. Wikis can be set up to be either open to the public or may require registration and user authentification to edit pages. In either case, multiple users can access the pages and make additions, changes, add links to resources, etc.They can also reorganize the structure of the site. A way to think of a wiki is as a collaborative workspace where information can be gathered, shared, evaluated, organized and used to created something new. This collaboration can be done in a school setting between students,librarians, teachers, and/or administrators.

Security

As stated previously, wikis can be set up for private or public use. It is more likely that in a school setting, a private setting would be preferable, with a user authentification required to edit pages. All changes are kept in a history of the Wiki which allows users and the Moderator/Wiki-master to go back and look at who has edited the wiki and if needed go back to previous versions.

Wikis in the School Library

The opportunities for use of Wikis in the school libraries are as numerous as teachers/librarians are creative:

• A wiki could take the place of the library web site
• A wiki could be used as the home base for a class assignment providing instructions. resources, graphic organizers, time lines, citation maker links, writing pages etc.
• a wiki can be an English class' ongoing literature reflection log
• a wiki can be a year long tracking of weather conditions in Japan, including earthquakes, effect on crops, Skpye call to children in Japan recorded and linked to wiki, etc...
• a wiki can become an online dictionary of vocabulary learned throughout the school year.

Wiki Resources

Here is a great site on top tools and resources for Wikis[2]

In order to get started, there are some wiki hosts that are better know than others because they are easy to work with and/or they are free. They are as follows:

PBwiki - 5000mb, Public or private, no ads on eduator site, access control, easy to use.

WikiSpaces - public wikis are free, private wikis are $5/month, $50/year. Currently ofering free wiki to educators (up tp 100,000) similar to PB Wiki)

MediaWiki - free software wiki package originally written for Wikipedia. It’s available for everyone to use. used by Simmons, what we are using for our wiki!