although not the only tool for creating your own wiki, in my experience it is the most popular (& alexa statistics back my opinion). wikispaces is a simple application for publishing information & collaborating with others. currently wikispaces hosts over 2,500,000 members on over 1,000,000 individual wikis. private, ad-free wikis with unlimited users & edits are $50 a year for most consumers, but wikispaces sees itself as an important education tool & provides teachers with a free private wiki for classroom use. in my opinion, wikispaces is the best choice for wiki development.
what is a wiki?
before i get into the specifics of wikispaces, i'd like to define wiki & analyze its role in a classroom. the term wiki is a derivative of wiki wiki, which is the hawaiian word for quick. the term is chosen because wikis are arguably your fastest path to a web identity of your own. wikis are websites that can be edited by anyone (or a select group, depending on settings) allowing for a place for many people to collaborate on an idea or concept. wikispace functions much like wikipedia. users can make a page, edit the page, & hold discussions about its contents. educational wikis are usually closed to only invited members. typically students request membership & the teacher approves individual users for entry to the class wiki. remember, teachers get a free private wiki with wikispaces.
how can you use wikis in the classroom? most commonly i find wikis used for collaborative projects. a teacher i work with places writing samples on his wiki, then has students edit the excerpt. wikis can be used to share ideas between classes. students taking the same class during different periods or in different schools can work together on projects. teachers can use a wiki as a way to disseminate information or as an enrichment resource for students that finish work early or are absent to class. think of a wiki as a really simple website that can be edited by a select group of people, & you will find classroom application is pretty much limitless.
final verdict.
so what separates wikispaces from google sites, pbworks, or other wiki farms? not much. because wikis are little more than a wysiwyg editor, there really is little to differentiate competitors. what makes a wiki special is the content you add to your wiki. i like wikispaces because it provides educators with ad-free, privately managed accounts. it is the most popular wiki generator for classrooms, you will find vast support articles & forums throughout the internet for quick reference. the number one complaint i receive about wikispaces is an issue with wikis as a whole & not specific to wikispaces. teachers are regularly concerned with the amount of time required to start, add content, & monitor. it's true, wikis are a time commitment, but with 2gb of storage, customizable themes, & site privacy, wikispaces provides the best & simplest wiki experience.
