Wikis

Wikis

Andrea Alderman, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Definitions and background

Wikis are websites where users can read or edit content (Kimmerle, Moskaliuk and Cress, 2011). Wikis are a Web 2.0 application—an application that lets users both read and write (as opposed to Web 1.0 applications that were read-only) (Ruth and Houghton, 2009). Wikis are online, browser-based and provide open editing of all pages (Deters, Cuthrell and Stapleton, 2010). Wikis are often compared to blogs but differ in many ways; the most important of which is that blogs are organized chronologically while wikis are organized hierarchically (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin and Rudolph, 2004). Wikis are also organized according to folksonomies (when contributors attribute tags to information to facilitate grouping and searching) (Deters, Cuthrell and Stapleton, 2010).

Ward Cunningham originally developed Wikis in 1995, with the most well known wiki being Wikipedia (Challborn and Reimann, 2005). The name wiki comes from the Hawaiian word wiki-wiki, which means quick (Goodwin-Jones, 2003). Other sources claim the name wiki is an acronym for “What I Know Is” (Gomes and Sousa, 2013, p. 627). Since the original wiki, hundreds of wiki programs have cropped up, however, most are carbon copies of other wikis with only a few distinctive services (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin and Rudolph, 2004).

Affordances

The main affordance of wikis is that they allow users to view and edit content in an “openly accessible digital space” (Wheeler, Yeomans, and Wheeler, 2008, p. 989). The content is multimedia in nature and can include text, images, hyperlinks and (on some wikis) videos (Sanden and Darragh, 2011). Wikis are also browser-based, which allows users to access them from different platforms without the need for additional software (Ruth and Houghton, 2009). When used in an educational context, the multimedia approach of wikis permits students to easily share resources and knowledge (Naismith, Lee and Pilkington, 2011). In some schools, resources are not only shared between students and teachers, but also with parents and guardians—strengthening the school-home connection (Lee, 2012). Lee (2012) also found that when schools shared wikis with the home, parents become “more involved in their children’s learning because they knew what their children and teacher were doing together without being in the classroom” (p. 96).

Wiki services provide another affordance by allowing users or moderators to return pages to prior versions in case of misinformation or tampering (Glassman and Kang, 2011). Additionally, moderators (teachers) can choose to receive a notification, generally through email, to inform them of changes to the wiki content (Matthew, Felvegi and Callaway, 2009).

Another affordance of wikis is that they allow students to collaborate from any location at any time, making learning asynchronous (Naismith, Lee and Pilkington, 2011). Fu, Chu and Kang (2013) found that when they interviewed students about their impressions of working on a wiki they “enjoyed this learning experience mostly because they were able to carry out the project at their convenience” (p. 91). The wiki approach also provided students the ability to co-author documents more easily than traditional word processing methods (such as Microsoft word) (Fu, Chu and Kang, 2013).

An additional affordance of wikis is that there exists a variety of wiki services, which makes them flexible (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin and Rudolph, 2004). Users can thus choose how simple or complex the wiki should be, depending on their technical aptitude or specific requirements (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin and Rudolph, 2004). The most simple and accessible wikis employ “WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) text editors” (Larusson and Alterman, 2009, p. 373).

A final affordance of wikis is their use in the language classroom (Craig, 2013). Lee (2012) reported that the research, reading, writing and editing involved in creating an entry strongly supported and fostered language-learning skills. By having students work on wikis as part of a computer-supported collaborate environment; teachers are able to make learning authentic and memorable (Gomes and Sousa, 2013).