User:Tallong/sandbox/wiki

A wiki is a specialised website that allows users (people reading and writing at the site) to work together easily and more or less simultaneously.

Wikis use a special, simplified form of computer code, (special characters typed along with words and phrases), to enable users to make text look a certain way on a page, and also, to create internal links to other subjects. Readers can click on these links, which are easily found because they show up in a different colour, to browse through many topics on the wiki.

Wikis are particularly useful when people want to work in collaboration on a special project, such as a community project, an Internet project organised for a specific purpose, or in a corporation with an intranet (an internally linked computer system).

Advantages to using wikis
User can start with very little training; easy to create pages and place text and images on them.
 * 1) Allows many users at a time
 * 2) No need to circulate drafts; readily available to all
 * 3) The language and its syntax are relative simple

Disadvantage to using wikis

 * 1) Very easy to vandalise.
 * 2) No inherent quality control
 * 3) Wiki markup is not uniform, that is, different wiki software uses different syntax, so users have to learn each one.  Novice users can easily become frustrated.
 * 4) Although any number can participate; one must have a good number of participants to take full advantage of the system. Users get discourage if there are not perceived to be a lot of people participating and cooperating.

Popular wikis
The best known Internet wiki is probably Wikipedia Other websites set up as wikis include
 * Wikieducator
 * Citizendium
 * Wookiepedia
 * Scholarpedia
 * Wikihow
 * Conservapedia

= How can a wiki be used to educate? =

Wikis are powerful tools for teaching because they do not require any physical presence in order to educate:
 * One can work online, i.e. directly on the wiki
 * One can work offline, and upload the work to the wiki, either bit by bit, or all at once.

Features

 * excellent for long distance learning
 * both students and instructors can work on or off of the wiki
 * vandalism can be minimized by restricting access to parts of the wiki or to certain functions. It can be virtually eliminated by ‘closing’ the wiki, that is, requiring registration and/or proof of identity for registration.
 * only need to verify users once; then user can sign in using a password to confirm identity.
 * images, scans and video can be uploaded to the wiki
 * students can work cooperatively or alone

The teacher can

 * teaching materials easily uploaded
 * assess students' skills easily; there is no more danger of cheating than in traditional assignments, i.e. term/research papers; take-home examinations.

The student can

 * Work at her or his own pace
 * Use a combination of methods to work:
 * hand write and then type notes and/or
 * type directly onto a shared or personal computer; save work on disks or drives to upload later, and/or
 * upload completed work to the wiki; cleanup if necessary, and/or
 * type directly onto the wiki, formatting as s/he types