WIKIS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

Nowadays wikis are becoming more and more popular. They can be used to create entire communities where people can get together and create and store a whole bunch of interesting activities, stories, discussions, etc.

 According to an article named “Educational Wikis; Features and Selection Criteria” (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin, and Rudolph , 2004), wikis are already used by some universities for educational purposes and they  seem to be quite helpful. For example, they can be used by teachers to create interesting activities for their students, or to present the course material. They can also help teachers to monitor and evaluate the students ‘ progress through their discussions in wikis during the course.

Wikis are often compared to blogs in terms of sharing information and bringing people together. However there is an essential difference between the two. One of them is that once you have created a post in your blog it cannot be edited by others, whereas in wikis you have such tool. For example, students can create a story and the peers can continue or edit each others’ stories. From my personal experience I can say it is really fun. Besides, such activities build up a sense of collectivism and collaboration among learners. Another difference is that blogs are structures whereas wikis are more flexible in terms of internal and external hyperlinking.

In my view wikis can be used not only for creating in-class but also extracurricular acivities. In this way the teacher can indirectly engage his/her students in the learning process outside classroom. For example, students can use their knowledge of English to get or create information about any topic they are interested in. Through wikis they can create their own community or even connect to other communities sharing the same interests.