WIKIs

What is a Wiki?
Wiki's have become one of the most popular tools on the web for collaboration and sharing of knowledge (Louridas, 2006). To see an example of a Wikispace, you can have a look at the one I am creating by clicking on here.
Benefits of a Wiki
The benefit of a Wiki is that it can allow students to communicate to each other and collaborate over a topic in class, whilst also connecting with other students and experts that can access their wikispace on the web.
Students can add to their wiki anywhere in the world as long as they have the Internet!
Other students can add to someone-else's Wiki and also edit it.
If someone edits your wiki, you can see the history and change what has been edited if you do not like what they added or deleted.
Students can work as a class to work on a project and add to the wikispace as they find more information. This is an example of the Connectivism theory, where people "connect" with each other to find accurate information. Connectivism promotes continual learning also according to Siemens (2004).
However, if Wiki's are used in the classroom, rules need to be made explicit so cyber-bullying does not occur or is at least limited and then dealt with.

Disadvantages of a Wiki
Using a Wiki for educational purposes where students can edit pages and add to each-other's pages, can sadly result in cyber-bullying. This is obviously a huge issue, however if the teacher keeps a close eye on the class's discussions online etc, it can be handled. The teacher should give students guidance in what to add to the Wiki so they are limited to what they can write about but can still have more freedom than writing an individual essay for example.
Obviously, the teacher needs to be aware of the safety and ethics of everyone in the classroom in order for students to learn effectively and prevent emotional abuse and cyber-bullying.

So to conclude, although it is scary that cyber-bullying can occur in the classroom, I am still willing to give Wiki a go as I really feel the way Wiki can connect students in the class, is a bigger advantage than the disadvantages of Wiki. As I am majoring in HPE, an example of using a Wikispace could be that the class has to create a Coaching course online for a particular sport and explain how this sport relates to the fitness principles. Students would be given websites from their teacher to look at so they did not waste time looking at useless websites. Therefore students could create this Wikispace together in class, and everyone can add to the space. This would connect the class and help each student research, learn and relate their new knowledge to the real world, in order to help them with the summative assessments. Students will find making a Wikispace interesting and engaging, rather than copying off the whiteboard! I am eager to try it. There is no reason not to give it a go - if it fails, well at least I gave it a go. I am aiming to be a teacher who can relate to the students of the 21st century. I feel Wiki can definitely help.

References:
Louridas,P . (2006). Using Wikis in software development, IEEE Software, vol. 23 (2). pp.88-91. Doi:10.1109/MS.2006.62.

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age, Retrieved from URL: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm