1 / 32

Using a wiki in an academic environment

Using a wiki in an academic environment. Jeffrey A. Meunier 22 September 2006. Outline. What is a wiki? How does a wiki work? How are wikis being used? Where are wikis? Benefits and drawbacks How can a wiki be used in an academic environment?. 1. What is a wiki?. What is a wiki?.

tareq
Download Presentation

Using a wiki in an academic environment

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Using a wiki in an academic environment Jeffrey A. Meunier 22 September 2006

  2. Outline • What is a wiki? • How does a wiki work? • How are wikis being used? • Where are wikis? • Benefits and drawbacks • How can a wiki be used in an academic environment?

  3. 1. What is a wiki?

  4. What is a wiki? • Short for “wiki-wiki web server” • “Wiki-wiki” Hawaiian for “quick” • User-editable web site, easy markup • Editable through client web browser • Different from blog (weblog) • Blog is linear, serial • Wiki is standard web site

  5. Wiki features • Simple textual markup language • Server renders into HTML = Wiki features = * Simple //textual markup// language * Server renders into **HTML**

  6. Wiki features • Hyperlinks are easy (I’ll show this) • Some have WYSIWIG • Edit existing pages, add new pages • Page backup, revert • User accounts, page protection

  7. The point of a Wiki is to reduce the barrier between viewing a page and editing it. Wikis are about ease of contribution. The more obstacles you put between viewing and editing, even small ones like having to fire up an editor, the less likely people are to edit. You have to enable editing in the same application that is being used for browsing, and since people already grok and enjoy browsing their hypertext in a web browser, that’s where we have to be.

  8. 2. How does a wiki work?

  9. Normal web server Page request: • Client requests HTML web page • Server fetches file • Server sends file to client • If file does not exist, send 404 error

  10. Normal web server Add a page: • Edit web page locally • Upload web page to server • FTP copy, or • Telnet/SSH, copy file to server

  11. Wiki web server Page request: • Client requests wiki web page • Server fetches file, translates into HTML • Server sends file to client • If file does not exist, send “page edit” page • User can enter text, save

  12. Wiki web server Add a page: • User edits an existing page using web browser • Type textual link to non-existing page • Save page • Click link to non-existing page, server will send “edit page”

  13. Example: using a wiki My wiki home page: http://jeffmeunier.wikispaces.com • Edit home page • Add link to new page “Sandbox” • Create page • Enter some text

  14. Page storage • Many wikis store pages in plain text files • Good for small to medium-sized web sites • Easy backup and restore • Some wikis use databases • Good for very large web sites

  15. 3. How are wikis being used?

  16. The original wiki • Portland pattern repository (software patterns) • http://c2.com/cgi/wiki

  17. Wikipedia • http://www.wikipedia.org • Normal encyclopedia: • Much knowledge from few people • Wikipedia: • Little knowledge from many people

  18. How stuff is made • http://howstuffismade.org • Photo essays describing how things are made: bottles, clothes, coal

  19. MSU Informatics • http://10.114.0.42/wiki

  20. Other wiki uses • Discussion forums • Personal home pages • Organization web sites • Web logs • Personal information managers (PIMs) • Open source software repositories

  21. 4. Where are wikis?

  22. Run a local server You can download your own wiki server software and run on your own PC. • http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines

  23. Use a hosted wiki Often called a wiki farm • http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiFarms Example: • http://wikispaces.org/

  24. Client-based wiki • Tiddly wiki • Saved as a local file

  25. 5. Benefits and drawbacks

  26. Benefits • Easy page creation and editing • Peer review and edit (of public wiki pages) • Contribution to public knowledge • Collaborative web projects

  27. Drawbacks • Potential for vandalism • Hard security: user accounts, lock wiki pages • Soft security: easy page revert • Wiki markup not as rich as HTML • but XHTML + CSS is too complicated

  28. 5. How can a wiki be used in an academic environment?

  29. We use web pages already • Post lectures and assignments

  30. We can also • Provide discussion forums • Allow students to post project documentation • Students can submit assignments to protected pages

  31. Academic benefits For professors: • More information can be provided to students, more quickly • Course information, calendars, exam info. • Higher quality of information provided to students • Errors and omissions can be corrected quickly, even by students

  32. Academic benefits For students: • Students more aware of what they create • Peer review encourages higher quality work

More Related