The internet has changed the way we do research. How many of you go to a wiki service first thing when you want to learn about a new topic? A wiki is a site with pages that anyone at all can edit and add to. So, you end up with great collaborative efforts and mingling of knowledge in most cases. Wikis usually have a feature that tracks all of the changes to a page so that you can go back and check for accuracy and permissions. Accountability is important in any collaborative effort.

Anyone Can Create a Wiki
One thing that not everyone is aware of is that there is not just one source for a wiki. Anyone can create a wiki website. The easiest way to do this is to use a free, hosted tool like Wetpaint. You can set up a wiki for any common interest. It’s great for educators and study groups, entertainment and news sites, crafting groups, local organizations,…pretty much anything at all. In fact, I am going to be setting up a wiki for my free hair bow making group. We have nearly 1200 active members and there is a LOT of information sharing going on. I’ve been looking for a better way to organize the information people have contributed as well as a way for people to not feel intimidated about digging in and being involved. I want an easy way for any of the group members to be able to upload pictures, videos and text. We share a lot of bow instructions, so this would be a perfect medium.

As an Educational Tool
As an educator, I am particular excited about the type teaching tool a wiki can be in the classroom. Teaching about collaboration is super important and wikis weave collaboration with technology, making them an ideal way to engage students in the learning process. Having a classroom wiki is also a great way to involve parents and families. And, anyone who is in education knows that involving families can be a struggle at times. In a very cool move, Wetpaint removed all of the ads from qualifying education wikis.

Just a Quick Note
I wanted to highlight a wiki tool a lot of you may not be aware of. There is actually a search engines that exclusively searches wikis, in just about any language you want. The tool is Qwika. I highly recommend giving it a look. There is no reason to wade through Google and other search engines if you already know you want to find wiki entries.