Wiki means ‘quick’
Thursday, October 16th, 2008A conventional website, a wiki site, and a blog site have one thing in common. More than one person can create and edit its pages if the owner of the site allows it. The difference is how they allow for it.
In a conventional website one may give various people log in access, but possibly restricted to certain folders. In a blog, like this one, various roles may be given out: administrator, editor, and contributor, with various rights on what they can do on the site. In a wiki one allows or does not allow invited people, logged in people, or anyone, to edit a specific page or create a new one.
At the moment I teach ITGS, Information Technology in a Global Society, and enjoy a wiki that originates from a school in Egypt. On that paricular wiki one needs a password to edit its pages, so for me it functions as a conventional website although it may have many authors behind the scene.
Just to have mentioned it, Wikipedia, the free, online encyclopedia is of course the most famous wiki there is where everyone can contribute.
There are several ways to start a wiki. Some are free and lets you store the wiki for free on a web server. Examples are wiki spaces and wet paint. Some are free, but requires that you have a web server where you can host it. Examples are pmwiki and media wiki.
How are wikis used in education? Here are a few links on the topic.
I have used blogs quite a bit during the last five years. Right now I am playing with CMS (content management system) like Exponent and CMS Made Simple and also a bit with Moodle. Let me add Wiki to the mix and see who comes out the winner.
How does a wiki compare to a blog? What are their different uses?
A blog is a time-based, sequential publication usually authored by one person, whereas information on a wiki is assembled and structured by a group of people. A blog is very much an online journal, and a wiki is similar to a whiteboard, except that it records everything that’s written on it, and lets you see the history of revisions.
In education, I see a blog being used to deliver news and updates to a class, and a wiki being used to work on projects, assignments, and notes. – More
By the way, what is groupware?
Collaborative software (also referred to as groupware or workgroup support systems) is software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve their goals. – More