Fred Bartels posted a call today on the ISED listserve, to contribute to a wiki called The Online Independent School Technology Guide.
A Wiki is a web page that anyone can edit. Yes, anyone. So I headed over to the site and posted some information on Course Management Systems and Student Information Systems. Now when you head there, you can add to my info, get rid of it all, edit it, or just read it.
How can this sustain itself? Well, every change ever made is saved. This way, if you post ads all over the site, someone else browing through can turn the clock back to the pre-ads page. It always amazes me how wikis sustain themselves with responsible users cleaning up unconstructive postings. The prime example is Wikipedia (available in 10 languages) of course, the largest encyclopedia in the world, also editable by anyone.
If you are involved in educational technology in any way, please contribute to this beginning knowledgebase. Blogging is one way in which we try to tap collective knowledge; wikis are another very powerful tool for this.
If you haven’t tried a wiki with students yet, get going! Example project: a wiki on the book you are reading – groups of students are responsible for creating chapter summaries, study questions, character reviews, etc. See how much more time they are willing to put it knowing that anyone in the class can see their work at any time.
