Educational CyberPlayGround

EDUCATIONAL USES OF WIKI IN THE CLASSROOM

"Wiki as a Teaching Tool"

Wikis and other emergent technologies are beginning to fill a gaping void in existing practice (Lamb, 2004). They enable extremely rich, flexible collaborations that have positive psychological consequences for their participants and powerful competitive ones for their organizations (Evans and Wolf, 2005). Collaborative creativity promises to be a key business skill in upcoming years. Educational institutions can offer immense value to their students by familiarizing them with the simple technologies that make collaborative networks possible. Today's students will not only manage business innovations of the future, but in many cases will drive them. Rather than being limited to today's skills, students must learn the skills of the future. Educators need to teach what wikis and other social software may mean to business, not just as a phenomenon, but also as a skill (Evans, 2006). By incorporating wikis into the classroom, educators can better prepare students to make innovative uses of collaborative software tools. [1]

TEACHING WITH WIKIS

"Wikis are Web pages that can be viewed and modified by anyone with a Web browser and Internet access. Described as a composition system, a discussion medium, and a repository, wikis support asynchronous
communication and group collaboration online." [2]