Eric's ETC Blog: BP5_2009102_Web 2.0 Wikispaces

A wiki is a Web 2.0 tool that allows multiple users to collaboratively contribute to and edit a website. Wikispaces (www.wikispaces.com) is a site that allows anyone to create and manage a wiki site with very little setup and without requiring any knowledge of HTML code. Though there are a number of sites that allow users to create wikis, K-12 educators should be sure to check out Wikispaces to take advantage of their free upgrades to sites for educators. A limited number of free subscriptions for educators are available at www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers that allow teachers to have protected or private wikis that would normally be available only with the $50 subscription account.

Wikispaces allows users to create a wiki, set the parameters for who can access or edit it, and easily create new pages and add content to pages. Users can change the appearance of pages just as easily as in other Web 2.0 sites such as Blogger or Google Sites, and can add photos or upload files to the wiki. One important feature of a wiki site on Wikispaces is that others can subscribe to updates through RSS or ATOM.

A wiki site could have many uses in an educational setting. For example, as a high school band director, I could envision using a wiki to allow students to share information with each other such as contact info for private teachers, sharing information about upcoming concerts or other performances they might be participating in or attending, or compiling music-related sites or resources in a single location. My Studio Technology classes could use the wiki site to share their projects or get feedback from their peers. Students could then subscribe to the RSS feed for the pages on the site they’re interested in following so that they can automatically be notified when there are changes or additions to the page or the site