Potential Benefits

While anyone can create a personal wiki that only they can edit, the real strenght of wikis is in their ability to allow group collaboration. Other benefits of wikis are that they:

• are able to use many multimedia elements for addressing various learning styles
• encourage situations in which students must learn 21st Century skills in order to contribute to the group process
• make it easy to publish work to the web and contribute to the growing body of knowledge on any topic.

Example Uses

There are numerous ways to use wikis in higher education, including:

• creating course web sites
• developing personal & professional portfolios
• building topic-oriented resources sites
• organizing multiple sections of a course taught by multiple instructors to minimize course drift

Tools & Techniques

There are too many wiki tools available to cover them all here!  Instead, I've chosen two wikis that are more popular with educators because of their ease-of-use. Plus - they're free!

• PBWiki
• WetPaint

See the Wiki Comparison Chart to help you decide among the wikis listed. For a more extensive list of wikis, see the Wiki Matrix.

Research & Resources

• Selecting Wikis - article about criteria to consider when selecting a wiki for educational uses.
• Wiki Patters - web site with many resources to help you create a successful wiki community.
• Wiki Pedagogy - web site with research, tools, techniques, tips, and ideas for using wikis.
• Wikis in Higher Education: Pros, Cons and How-Tos - short article with links to example wikis and practical tips for using wikis in higher ed classes.