Wikis in the Classroom

I think it's important that we not only expose students to how Wikis work, but how they operate in "the wild" as well. As it stands, the Wiki is one of the most important learning tools of our generation- not for providing the in-depth and comprehensive knowledge available only in classrooms, but for giving easy and intuitive access to a wide range of topics and for making the relationships between those topics explicit with the use of hyperlinks.

Wiki-learning is conversational and self-directed, in the sense that Wiki participants choose the path they take from topic to topic and can contribute their own findings and opinions when appropriate. For that reason I hope to encourage my students not only to use Wikis in specific classroom-directed activities, but also to view the Wiki as a vital tool for sustaining their innate curiosities.