College classes are changing each and every year. Students are using different types of technology to collaborate and complete their assignments. One way to complete group projects is through wikis. Wikis are website where you can edit and change comments when you have been allowed into a specific wiki. This a very fast way to collaborate with others. Even the word "wiki" in Hawaiian means "fast." How can wikis help college students though?
Wikis are a wonderful tool to have collaboration among students doing a project. One reason why they can be great is because when someone has an idea, they can put it on the wiki. If someone wants to respond or change the idea, they can just go on the wiki and do it. It doesn't take e-mail after e-mail or call after call to collaborate. Wikis are a quick and easy way to lay ideas out on the table.
Another way that wikis are a great tool is because one person can be the leader. They can take control of the wiki and not allow others to change it. This could be good and bad in a way. Good because you wouldn't want others to erase or detail some hard work that a group member might have put in. You would have to trust your members. I'm sure though that your group members would not be careless and delete your work. Wikis could be bad because it wouldn't be fair to other members if only one person had total control over your wiki.
Unlike blogs and kinds of technology on the internet, wikis can also be private. Only people who are invited into the wiki are allowed to change or add their comments. This is helpful so it leaves stranger out who may want to read your work. Anyone can get on a blog and type in their comments which can sometimes be inappropriate. Doing a school project on a blog would be difficult under these circumstances.
All in all, wikis are an excellent tool for projects especially when a group of students live far away from each other. Wikis can bring group members closer together and it allows them to work simultaneously on a project. Typically, college students have to find time to meet to complete a project, but with more and more students working to make ends meet, finding the time to finish projects can be hard. Wikis are then a great way to meet online and send ideas back and forth.
With all these reasons why wikis can help college students finish projects easily, I can see more and more students using wikis as long as they can be trained or have exposure to it. Several people already know about the biggest wiki on the Internet, Wikipedia, however, they probably do not realize that they can be involved in their own smaller wiki. Time will tell if wikis will take off and students will use them more for projects.