PREVENTING!

Feel free to delete the following text (or the entire page) as the mood strikes you:

What is a wiki?

"A wiki is software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily." More information:Wikipedia's wiki page

Who needs a wiki?

Anyone interested in working collaboratively on documents without:

1. version creep (different versions of the document progressing in different directions on different local PCs
2. the delay inherent in waiting for your collaborator to send you the 'latest version'.

With a wiki there is one version online and accessible at any time to any individual available to work on it.

Anyone willing to instantly share information for free online.

Wikis in education?

Ideal for team-produced documents. User effort is documented. Mistakes can easily be undone by reverting to an earlier version using the history tab. Resources (media etc) created by others can be incorporated into new documents.

Disadvantages and solutions

Vandalism

Anyone including vandals can edit your material. Solution: first consider the predator dilution effect. There are many wikis, and the chances are that many (most?) will be more prominent than yours or mine. In short there are juicier prey out there to interest the vandals. And when vandals do show up, they can be blocked and you can use the history tab to go back. Vandalism has been very rare at wikieducator: Special:Ipblocklist ( Just 4 users blocked since March)

Copyright issues

Students are accustomed to illegally sharing music without consequence. Images, music, and video are frequently edited and combined and reposted. Legal reprocussions are uncommon. However, as educators we need higher standards, and what in a term paper might be called plagiarism, in a wiki, could easilly be copyright violation. So without the appropriate caution and suprivision (or even with it), students can step over legal and moral lines that we would wish they didn't. Despite the large black-letter disclaimer at the botom of the edit page, people can and do upload material that they should not. So guidelines and suprivision are essential to reduce the problem.

Your draft writing is out there, warts and all

Use the "Work in Progress" template: {{WIP}} until you are happy with the work or edit offline.

Getting started

Hit the Edit tab; delete everything above here; experiment with the buttons; use these Editing_tips; and move on to the Help tutorial.

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.