Wikis are websites that allow for collaboration between multiple authors to create content. Wikis can be public or private depending upon how they are set up. Wikis allow for linking and embedding of images, videos, and sound files. Wikis are often searchable, making them potentially complex, nested, multimodal documents.

Common Features:

• WYSIWYG Editing and Posting
• Tagging
• Tracking changes/versions
• Chat
• Message threads/discussions
• Profiles
  

Tools:

• Google Sites (http://sites.google.com/)
  
• Wetpaint (http://www.wetpaint.com)
• PB wiki (http://pbwiki.com/)
• Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/)
• MediaWiki (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki)
  

How might you use Wikis in Teaching?

• Collaborative group projects
• In-process view of student work (instructors can easily comment upon it; example assignment w/student examples linked from menu bar on the left: http://hum206.wetpaint.com/page/My+Show+Project)
• Portfolios
  
• Reading responses (example: http://courses.kathiegossett.com/fa07/engl801/index.php?title=Main_Page)
• Collaborative resource building (example: http://enh241.wetpaint.com/)
  
• Textbook (or http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Rhetoric_and_Composition example)
  

How might your students use Wikis in their lives?

• Collaboration with clubs, family members, and community groups (Example: http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000648.html)
• Make their own website without needing to have high-tech web authoring skills
  
• Specialized topical wikis
• Workplace wikis
  

How might you use Wikis in Scholarship?

• Collaborate with others on projects
  
• Banks/repositories of resources

Resources

• Wikis in Plain English, YouTube: v=-dnL00TdmLY
  
• Wetpaint in Plain English, YouTube: v=F7BAU2XX5Ws
  
• Exploration Guide: Educational Uses of Blogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, etc.
  
• Wild About Wikis
  
• The Power of Wikis in Higher Education
  
• Tips for Getting Started with Educational Wikis
• Some Notes and Handouts for Google Sites