Wikis

When seeing the word "wiki" as the topic for this weeks blog, I was unaware of its meaning. I googled "wiki" and came to find that it is a software for servers to allow "users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser". I typed in "wikis" on cnn.com and came to find that wikis are fairly well known. "Wikis" are almost like a myspace. A website popped up off of cnn.com stating "wikispaces". This website allows for families, friends, groups, anyone to join this website and make web pages to share with their fellow mates. There is a tour that you can check out which shows people the different steps in making your "wikispace" personalized to yourself. Questions that are asked show that wiki is used greatly for classrooms, work groups, families, sports teams, etc. This is a process to show everyone in your extended network things that are going on in your life. Every month one must pay 5-20 dollars to be allowed to use wikispaces. To encourage more teachers to use this program, they are giving away "100,000 free wikis for primary/secondary education". (www.wikispaces.com)

This type of technology would relate to teaching in that teachers would be able to discuss things with their students, post assignments, or even post announcements for their students to be able to access very easily. These wikispaces are similar to blogging but they cost money and they ensure more of a security to your page.

I am not sure where I stand with wikis. I do not want to pay to be a member, but from what I have seens through taking the tour of the page it seems like a pretty good idea to me. Although, a teacher could just use blogging instead and have it for FREE. I am not so sure how much of it is a scam because the teacher could easily just email the students for free if they needed an announcement to be out or a discussion to be started. Im not sure yet how I feel about wikis...

I think that blogging and wikis should be compared and contrasted into pros and cons. The wikis seem to cost money where as blogging is free and open to the public. I guess the privacy factor plays a key role, this should be further investigated to insure this process. I think that research should be done in the classrooms to see if teachers would really use this in a positive way and would help the teachers and students.