Wikis are collaborative writing tools but, as Clarke (pp 274 - 276) puts it, like any device their success depends on how they are used. Simply put they consist of several pages that users can link together. Each user has the ability to edit content, link pages together and create new pages.
I am not a fan of Wikis at all. They do have numerous positives yet it is my opinion that the detracting factors far outweigh the benefits.
Clarke (pg 275) states the benefits of this technology surround its ability to offer a collaborative and cooperative writing process. This way of creating content allows groupsof students to learn to work together and gain a fresh insight in to the topic from the process. Writing for the majority of people is a highly individual process of one person writing and others giving feedback. What a Wiki helps to do is make that feedback process dynamic by allowing an audience to review the work as authors.
This process I have found to be frustrating. For those students who are confident in their own abilities and are passionate about what they are saying in their writing, the Wiki process can be excruciatingly painful. I am all for the adding of content however the ability to change what others have already contributed seems rather rude and self important.
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