Basically, a "wiki" is a collaborative writing environment, or a web site that anyone with access can add to, revise, and otherwise reshape.
You don't need to know much about computers--if you can use a word processor, you can use a wiki--but you do need to have a desire to help create knowledge and a sense of responsibility toward your peers. Wikis are great places to learn about building a classroom community. If you want something a bit more visually stimulating, you can watch a video I've prepared on using our wiki!
Learn more about wikis at wikipedia, perhaps the most recognizable example of a wiki. For an interesting contemporary take on the possibilities and politics of the wiki environment, particularly Wikipedia, do some research on the "Sarah Palin controversy" and "Wikipedia." Some relevant articles are available in The Washington Post, The New Statemsan, and The New York Times. NPR covered the story, too, which you can listen to online. You can also read primary source materials about the controversy by visiting the Wikipedia User Page for Young Trigg, the Wikipedia user who edited Palin's page. Want more? Check out this list of Wikipedia controversies! Lisa Spiro, an expert in the field of digital humanities scholarship, has also made a wonderful post on using Wikipedia as a source--not to be missed, if you're interested.
This term, you'll be contributing to these wiki pages, and even making new ones, all in the name of knowledge creation. Here, you can ask and respond to questions, access and add to a collection of useful contextual information, and, in some cases, help create a growing repository of exam and essay questions that I'll draw on for our tests.
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