Wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...

s are a Web 2.0 technology where users can edit or add content onto a web page with a

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

, and are thought to facilitate collaboration by promoting interaction with online content. Many publicly available wikis, such as

Wikiversity Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project that supports learning communities, their learning materials, and resulting activities. It differs from Wikipedia in that it offers tutorials and other materials for the fostering of learning, rather ...

, allow for

self-education Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individua ...

, and wikis are sometimes used in classrooms for

collaborative projects Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...

. Some teachers have found, however, that learners prefer to add their own content rather than rewrite others' work, perhaps because of an institutionally cultivated norm of individual ownership. Some students express shyness about exposing their work to be viewed by others. Such transparency seems to reduce

plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...

. There is capability, with

wiki software Wiki software (also known as a wiki engine or a wiki application), is collaborative software that runs a wiki, which allows the users to create and collaboratively edit pages or entries via a web browser. A wiki system is usually a web application ...

such as

MediaWiki MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for MediaWiki ...

, to review all the edits made by any particular user. In this way, if an edit made by a user is identified as problematic, it is possible to check that user's other edits for issues. This feature is useful for teachers of classes in which grades for group projects are determined by the contributions of individual students to a wiki. One teacher notes, "Since all the work is done on the wiki, the teacher can see everything that is and is not being done. That makes early intervention possible whenever it is necessary." Another educator who had students use MediaWiki writes:

References

{{Reflist Wikis Educational software