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Characteristics of Wikis

Page history last edited by Tony Vincent 11 years, 8 months ago

Since a wiki is a website, you can gather from the examples that wikis are used in many of the same ways that websites are. Wikis are great for homepages, assignments, portfolios, book reviews, group projects, virtual word walls, document downloads--everything you'd do with a web page. Wikis have certain characteristics that make them even more useful for education.

 

A wiki can be authored by one or many users. Wikis have security/permissions settings so that a wiki's creator can give access to only specific users. By restricting editing privileges, teachers can have a wiki that only they can edit. Alternatively, a wiki can be open to students to edit but not for everyone else on the Internet. Wiki security settings are flexible.


It's easy to edit a wiki.
 Wikis have an edit button at the top of each page. Clicking that button puts you into edit mode for that page. As mentioned above, you can restrict editing privileges and if you do, users will have to log in to edit the page.


Only one user should edit an individual page at a time.
 A wiki will alert you if you try to edit a page that is currently being edited by someone else. That's because a wiki page is not designed to be edited by multiple users simultaneously. If a small group is working on a page, only one computer should be used for all members to contribute. While an individual page can be edited by only one person at a time, different pages of a wiki can be edited simultaneously. 

 

It's easy to add new pages. Wikis have Create a Page or New Page links on every page. Click that link and name your new page to get started.


A history of revisions is available
. Click a wiki page's History button to see a list of each revision of that page. The history displays the date, time, and author of each instance the page was changed. You can click the date to view the page at that point in time. You can also choose to revert to that revision. This is very helpful if undesired changes were made to the page.


Teachers can create accounts for students.
 Usually wikis require a verified email address to create an account. PBworks and Wikispaces allow for teachers to create accounts for their students without an email address. Be sure your PBworks or Wikispaces account is registered as academic/education.

 

There are no moderation or approval features. When a user makes an edit to the wiki and clicks Save, that edit is immediately published. Although there is not an option for the teacher to approve edits before they are published, a wiki can email you each time it is changed. Additionally, wikis have web feeds (a.k.a. RSS or news feeds) that can alert you to changes.

 

You are free to add web links, images, videos, and widgets. The example wikis above don't rely on text alone. Hyperlinks connect other pages on the wiki or lead to other websites. Images and videos can be added with a couple of clicks. Many wikis use widgetsGlogster is a popular widget with wiki-using educators Boxing Gloves. Two other popular widgets are ClustrMaps and Live Traffic Feed Send Money . These widgets allow teachers and students to give Farewell speech of hits their wikis receive and allow them to see where their visitors are from.

 

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