Week 4 - Wikis

Thing 5 - What's a Wiki?

Wikis are communal web pages where people can add, edit, and delete information that is shared. The most famous Wiki is of course Wikepedia. It is easy to revert to a previous version of a page in case you do not like changes that were made. You can also require a login to make sure you control who adds to your Wiki if you get a lot of spam (junk information) on your Wiki. You can also determine which pages are editable and which ones are not. The available options depend on Wiki software that you are using.

Wikis are a great tool for libraries. For example, the Princeton Public Library created a Wiki for their Summer reading group and people added reviews of the books they read to the Wiki. It might be fun to create a space like that on your Library Wiki as well so students can share their likes and dislikes about books. You could also create pages where people can add cool web links for certain subject areas to share.

Thing 5 Learning2.0 Tasks
1. Watch this common craft video about the wiki phenomenon.
2. Create your own Wiki space and go to pbworks to sign up for free. You can watch a video and get more information on how to set up your wiki here. Check out topic relevant help in the right hand column. You'll be using this Wiki for your Library Wiki Assignment which comes in three parts.
3. Write down your username and password and wiki address (URL) in case you forget.
4. Write a blog post (using your very own blog created during week 2!) about what you learned and think about Wikis.