Wikipedia itself defines a wiki as “a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
Most wiki sites including wikipedia have had to in fact require registration simply to prevent spam and other rubbish being added to wikis by online pests. This registration also ensures the integrity of the online community to which the wiki belongs.
Wiki in edna Groups http://groups.edna.edu.au is a tool that is gaining popularity. Wikis are perfect for the aggregation of a community’s knowledge, for cementing a community’s sense of purpose, and for allowing the community to collaborate on and contribute to documents of importance.
While there are limitations - for example the wiki can’t be edited simultaneously, and in the current Groups there is no indication that someone else is already editing when you start - the wiki allows contribution by community members, re-organisation and re-formatting of content, the creation of sub-pages and has a ‘history’ tool which allows a winding back to a previous version if content is accidentally deleted. The tool allows simple wysiwyg formatting without knowledge of html, easy creation of new pages, and so on.
Some public edna Groups wikis you may like to explore:
- Booklists wiki in the Teacher Librarians Space: http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/wiki/view.php?id=26436
- Professional development support materials in Literacy AssessNet http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/wiki/view.php?id=29519
- How do you say that? Differences in education terminology between jurisdictions In the Australian Metadata for Education Group: http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/wiki/view.php?id=32820
The latter may very well be one that you can contribute to (but you will need to be a registered edna Groups person before you even see the “edit” button. - If you would like to join, then go to http://groups.edna.edu.au and click on Register
Some reading on wikis:
- Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration by Jane Klobas, Chandos Publishing 2006, ISBN 1-84334-178-6. Contains a contribution by Pru Mitchell, Senior information Officer at edna
- Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson, Corwin Press 2006, ISBN 1-4129-2767-6
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