A Wiki is any website or application that allows users/readers to edit its content; and to edit its content one need to be authorized.
Wiki is one of the most popular tool for education because of its various features. Wikis offer a lot of advantages to teachers; let’s find out what they are.
Collaboration: Educators and students across the globe can work and collaborate on the same website.
Connects Numerous Resources: Educators can offer students a lot of resources as much as they can. It aids them in their learning process and helps them to gain knowledge about specific thing in details.
No Need to Know Coding: Editing and creating wikis are very user-friendly and easy. The platform doesn’t require any other programming and HTML language.
Encourages Non-Technical Users: With Wiki, non-technical users can easily create and publish their content. There are a lot of people who are expert in particular area but they cannot show their skills because lack of technical skill. For those, wiki is a boon as they share their expertise here.
Immediate: As Wikis can be modified by anyone, learners can get instant information through Wikis, as it can be updated at any point of time.
Though there are a lot of Wiki websites that are useful but Wikispaces, PB Wiki and WikiMedia are top Wiki websites that teachers must know about. Let’s talk more about these in detail.
Wikispaces
Wikispaces Classroom is a writing platform where learners can work, communicate and collaborate in writing projects with team. It is very easy for educators to create classroom workspaces and assessment tools available on the platform enable teachers to evaluate student engagement and contribution in real-time. The platform is compatible on phones, browsers and tablets. Wikispaces is free for users and can be used for:
- Classroom Management
- Project-Based Learning
- Safe Social Networking
- Knowledge Communities
- Online and Remote Learning
Wikispaces Classroom can help you in:
Writing: Users can collaborate and edit pages, embed videos, polls, documents and images. Users can also make comment.
Social: Educators can create, safe and private network for their educators. Users can communicate and connect using familiar newsfeed.
Projects: Educators can create projects easily within second and set start and end date of assignment.
Real-Time Formative Assessment: Educators can watch real-time engagement of their students; they can also focus on particular students, projects, or reports across the class.
If you’re an administrator looking to provide wikis to an entire school, district, or university, you want Wikispaces Campus.
PBWiki
PBWiki is a platform where users can host and share information both in and outside classroom. It’s a platform where educators get a lot of facilities such as:
Classroom Accounts: Create student account without using email address.
Notifications: Automatic notification to keep users up to date.
Easy Editing: Users do not need to learn code in order to edit and format wiki pages.
Team Work: Give access to people in and or outside of classroom.
Share: Students and educators can store, discuss, search, files, pages, and documents.
Access: Every wiki page or file, accessible by computer, smartphone, or tablet.
PBWiki offers two types of account facilities – free and upgraded account. With free account, you will get:
- 1 wiki workspace
- 2 GB storage
- Free email customer support
- No credit card required
And upgraded account facility includes:
- 40 GB storage
- Custom security settings
- Custom branding and colors
- Only $99/year per classroom, or
- $799/year per school
Wikimedia
Wikimedia is an online platform that offers free educational content worldwide. Wikimedia attempts to bring, and has been successful in bringing useful and informative content to everyone. On the Wikimedia website, you can find links to various popular projects like Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikidata, Wikivoyage and many other.
Which one is your favorite? Share with us in the comment box.
