Wiki or Google Docs

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Permalink Reply by Bushra Faisal on April 16, 2009 at 9:45am

Wikis are a great idea to create collaborative work in the classrooms. I have created some self-learning resources about using wikis in the class as a part of my Masters project. This Web site is available at http://www.technologymadeeasyforteachers.com. It has video tutorials that give you a demo about different types of wikis and its uses. Please fill out a survey available in the feedback section of the Web site as this will help me to improve my Web site.

Good luck :)

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Permalink Reply by Amanda R. Debattista on April 21, 2009 at 9:51am

Hi Kendra, I can see you got a lot of replies already, but I just wanted to add that although I like both Google Docs and Wikis, I would rather use wikis in a classroom based project. I have been using Blogs recently with my kids to give them a feel of what its like to get their work published online and the natural progression (for me) is to start using Wikis. I liked wetpaint.com, its quite basic but does the job. Wikis are no different than blogs in terms of simplicity: you just fill in forms and off you go!

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Sandifer on April 23, 2009 at 9:40am

Hi Kendra --

I think both are very useful for collaboration, but there is one key distinction that I think needs to be considered before choosing. Do you want students to collaborate synchronously or asynchronously?

If you want students to edit synchronously then you need to use Google Docs because two or more students cannot edit the same wiki page at the same time -- but Google Docs does allow synchronous editing.

If you don't need synchronous editing then you can use a wiki.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Hubbard on April 23, 2009 at 1:38pm

Had no idea there was synchronous editing on G Docs.
How is it set up? Is it a menu option?

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Sandifer on April 24, 2009 at 8:22am

All you have to do is share the document with someone else and then they can edit at the same time as you.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Hubbard on April 23, 2009 at 3:08pm

What problem is the author referring to here?:

...recently received my beta invite to EtherPad, a real time text collaboration tool. So far, I like it. It allows multiple people to edit the same document simultaneously - with none of that pesky document jumping that happens in Google Docs.
http://tektrek.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/etherpad-and-synchronous-te...

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Sandifer on April 24, 2009 at 8:23am

There are times when two or more people are editing a Google Doc that the page will "jump" back to the top of the screen. I don't find it terribly distracting myself, but it does bother some people.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Hubbard on April 24, 2009 at 7:29am

From what I can see the notification facility on Docs only works for spreadsheets. A serious shortcoming surely if your students are collaborating on presentations or documents.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Greenberg on June 2, 2009 at 5:04am

I have used wikispaces for collaborative projects and have found them to be great...check out this student created wiki that my classes have been working for the last two years Project 2000

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Permalink Reply by Jay Fogleman on June 2, 2009 at 7:50pm

Hi Kendra,

Several people have shared many good points. I'd like to add two pieces to the puzzle:

to organize and then reorganize their work simply by revising the sidebar links (The sidebar is just another wikipage). Google docs is really not designed as a public knowledge base, so you might have trouble building a knowledge collection. I have used the same wikispace in my college classes for 3 years. Each year w use some pages accumulate student work across years, while some pages are "archived" by taking them out of the main page hierarchy.

2. I stumbled upon this by accident, but consider it very cool. You can have your students collaboratively write in a Google document (simultaneously even), copy the document's content, and then paste it into a wikispace page to add to your collection. The formatting, headings, and tables all come over! (Not sure about graphics, thought I doubt the graphics will travel as easily). This means that a hybrid solution may be most appropriate.

Jay Fogleman

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Hand on June 3, 2009 at 2:35pm

I have used wikis in my classroom which allow me to monitor who goes on, when and what changes they made. My students are also able to upload video, photostories, animations and have discussions with each other and me. I also had collaboration between the two schools where I teach. Kids like it because they get to create their own website.

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Permalink Reply by David Hilton on June 7, 2009 at 2:05am

Hi Kendra
I'm unfamiliar with google docs but I use a few wikis in my classes. There are several to choose from. WordPress has quite a good one for education called EduBlogs (you should find it with a search engine). Other ones are pretty easy to find.
I've found wikis work when you can build them into the culture of the classroom; students in my experience see them as work (unless you've got some super-scholars or something) so making it part of homework or assignment work can make sure that they get involved. Once the culture is built then the kids are engaged and the thing is just beautiful to watch.
If you want some ideas I've got a stack of links on wikis at http://www.diigo.com/user/davidhilton/wikis?tab=250.
Good luck!
David.

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