Using WIKIS for Collaborative Learning

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/using-wikis-for-collaborative-learning/

In the higher education environment, the use of wikis to facilitate collaboration among students is a great tool. A wiki is a website that allows you to create and edit a number of interlinked webpages via a web browser using a simple text editor. Examples include community websites, corporate intranets, management systems and note services. A wiki is an excellent choice for team project management, or in the case of higher education, group projects and case studies. It eliminates the need to email different versions of documents amoung team members. It also reduces confusion and gives equal access to all team members. It is a very effective way for group members to stay on top of the group process. Wikis allow users to access different versions of the page with a history feature. Tracking is avaliable to identify the time and day of each change and the individual who made the change. With tracking team members are encouraged to participate because the other members and the instructor will be able to see who contributed.The history feature also allows for previous versions of documents to be used if necessary. If someone accidentally deletes something on a page or makes a mistake, which sometimes happens when you have group members editing documents, the history feature allows you to go back to a previous version or compare the page to subsequent versions, and make corrections if needed.

I think wikis are great technology tools to use in higher education today!