Wikis for Collaborative Learning

A wiki is an online space where users and guests can edit, modify, add, remove information with intuitive editing tools.

Wiki has turned out to be much more than I'd imagined! That is not to say that I didn't imagine a lot. These are the design principles I sought to satisfy with the first release of Wiki. -- WardCunningham 

Key features of a wiki: (from http://wiki.org )

Open - Should a page be found to be incomplete or poorly organized, any reader can edit it as they see fit.

Incremental - Pages can cite other pages, including pages that have not been written yet.

Organic - The structure and text content of the site are open to editing and evolution.

Universal - The mechanisms of editing and organizing are the same as those of writing so that any writer is automatically an editor and organizer.

Observable - Activity within the site can be watched and reviewed by any other visitor to the site.

Convergent - Duplication can be discouraged or removed by finding and citing similar or related content.

Trust - This is the most important thing in a wiki. Trust the people, trust the process, enable trust-building. Everyone controls and checks the content. Wiki relies on the assumption that most readers have good intentions. But see: AssumeGoodFaithLimitations

Fun - Everybody can contribute; nobody has to.

Sharing - of information, knowledge, experience, ideas, views...

Interaction - This enables guest interaction.

Collaboration - A good collaboration tool, both synchronously and asynchronously.

Social Networks - Its power for supporting collaboration is great.

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