What's a Wiki?
A wiki is a webpage that can be edited quickly and easily-- you don't need to know code or have any technological skills greater than the ability to use a word processing program. If you can create a Word document, you can create a wiki.
Because wikis are so easy to use and edit, they're great tools for collaboration. Multiple users can add, change or delete information on a wiki. Wikis can be public or private and they can be password protected. Wikis also keep a "history" allowing you to see all the changes made by users-- you can even revert to earlier versions of your wiki page if you want. You can arrange to be notified in the event of changes to your wiki as well. Just because the wiki is collaborative, doesn't mean you have no control over it!
Video: Wikis in Plain English
Anatomy of a Wiki
Talk or Discussion-- allows users to carry on a conversation about content "off screen"
History-- view earlier "versions" of the wiki
Login-- necessary for any users to edit the wiki
Recent Changes-- see any content that has been added, removed or changed in any way
Simple markup language or WYSIWYG editor-- edit wiki pages using "wiki text" markup language or a "What You See Is What You Get" editor
Public View (Wikispaces)
Editing View (PBwiki)
Editing View (COD Library Wiki)
Get a Wiki!
PBWiki
PBWiki is easy to use, and has pretty good support. They offer all sorts of perks for educational wikis, the most important being ad-free wiki space. Premium wikis (monthly fee) allow more customization options such as additional "skins", additional file storage
Wetpaint
Wetpaint has a lot of templates and a much wider variety of styles ("skins") allowing for more customization than other wiki services. All Wetpaint wikis have ads (including educational wikis)-- they are included in sidebars along the side and bottom and are fairly unobtrusive.
Wikispaces
Clean, no-frills wikis with several understated style options. Ads appear along the sidebar for free wikis-- ad-free wikis are available for $5 a month. Easy blog integration option. Automatic Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License
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