Wiki or Google Docs

I'm looking to create a collaborative type project for my students and am wondering what would be the best platform for them to use - a wiki or google doc? I'm familiar with google docs but not with wikis. Could someone help me to determine the differences between the two and what situation would be best to use them in? Thanks!

Tags: collaboration, documents, google, wiki

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on February 1, 2009 at 10:31am

Google docs is great for collaboration, but not for identifying individual contributions--it's revision history is too complex. Wikis are great in an educational environment because individual contributions become a historical revision, and it's easier to assess individual work.

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Permalink Reply by Genadiy Selivanov on September 16, 2009 at 2:38pm

If everyone is assigned a different color, then individual contributions are easily spotted using Google docs ;)

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Permalink Reply by Collin Voigt on February 1, 2009 at 2:41pm

Google documents can have multiple people editing the same document at the same time. Wikis only allow one person to make changes at a time.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on February 2, 2009 at 6:10am

I have used wikispaces with my kids in the past, but am now making use of google apps. Within google apps, there is google sites. Basically a wiki, but with a few options on page types and also allows more than one editor at a time (although, not that smoothly). I'm a big fan, as are my kids. Check out google apps for schools - it includes gmail, docs, sites, calendar, chat and start page.
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/index.html

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Permalink Reply by Allison Hart on April 13, 2009 at 6:55am

My school has been using Google Apps for almost a year now, and we are really liking it. Docs are great for creating content with group members and getting feedback -the draft/brainstorm stages, while Sites have been great for "publishing" or displaying content and creating a showcase of learning.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Hubbard on April 13, 2009 at 7:25am

Here's a really basic question Allison.
I edit a docs page which other are collaborating on. I save the edit.
1. How do my collaborators know I have made a change?
2. Is there any way they can view how the doc was before I edited.

Questions straight from the kindergarten, I know. Sorry.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on April 13, 2009 at 7:33am

Hi Glenn,
Google docs is constantly 'live'. As you make edits, they appear in all other editor's versions as well. It can be a little messy - particularly if you are editing in the same area (same paragraph for example) but usually sorts itself out with some user patience.
In all docs, spreadsheets, etc there is a revision history section to see all and every change that has occurred from the beginning of the doc creation.
Cheers,
Ben

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Hubbard on April 13, 2009 at 7:55am

I understood that changes aren't seen by others until saved. In other words, in contrast to Ethernet, collaborators can't see the words appear on the screen 'live' as you type them.
Isn't that true, then?

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on April 13, 2009 at 8:10am

I guess, technically that's how it works... but Google Docs auto-saves fairly frequently. I must admit it's far from perfect when having people working on the doc at the same time.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Hubbard on April 13, 2009 at 10:34am

That's where Ethernet wins hands down - as long as they can be Skyping at the same time to discuss what they are seeing appear.
Admittedly there are no formatting options at present. But a text can always be copied when finished and pasted to be formatted elsewhere. Sometimes that's actually an advantage given how kids sometimes get hung up on questions of font and color to the detriment of the quality of what they are writing.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on April 14, 2009 at 6:12am

I agree, I used Etherpad this afternoon to run a backchannel chat with the students while we watched a video about Martin Luther King Jnr. Much smoother in real time that GDocs.
Each for it's own purpose I think.

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Permalink Reply by Kathryn Jorgenson on September 8, 2009 at 4:25pm

Ben, I am new to Classroom 2.0, but I saw one of your posts saying that you were going to create a math wiki for your 5th graders. This post was about a year and a half ago. My question is how did it go? I'm taking a course where we have to create a wiki in our subject area. I could do math, science and ss. Math being my favorite, I chose it, but now I'm realizing how difficult that may be.