Wiki Wiki

I think wikis have great teaching/learning potential. One of the best examples I have seen is from Professor Michael Wesch at Kansas State University who uses a Wiki in his introductory cultural anthropology class. They have a big project called World Simulation in which groups of students have to create their own country and they write about all aspects of this country on the class Wiki (geography, customs, religion, natural resources, etc.). One of the final assignments takes all of the countries through a few hundred years and see which countries survive and which are taken over. Each semester students write 80+ high quality pages on the wiki including citations. The class even has a commercial/preview and its own wiki page: http://mediatedcultures.net/worldsim.htm

One thing he has is an application which displays students names in different sizes based on how much they are contributing to the wiki--very effective for competition.

I think Krista's class wiki about the 35W bridge collapse is a great example of creating something of lasting value.

Learning how to post in wikis is also a skill for the job market. For example, with the University of Minnesota Libraries we have a very extensive staff wiki: https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/. So this is a skills that all staff have to learn so they can post to the wiki.

I can see wikis being used for everything from class notes, test study guides, assignments, collaborative writing projects and more.

I am planning on building a wiki around the idea of research (of course)--I have often talked with colleagues about trying to writing a wikibook companion to the Rhetoric and Composition book aimed at first year writing.

Here is an early draft: http://umninfolit.pbwiki.com. Not much on content but a framework for an idea. I can imagine giving each section to a group of students and ask them to complete a how to for each section.