Wiki...Educational benefits

I have spent the past few hours navigating my way around Wiki WetPaint and I must say I have enjoyed experimenting with all the applications available.

This is one web tool I wish I had known about last term when I had a group assignment. Emailing one another was the main form of contact due to distance obstacles. However Wiki WetPaint would have been a far superior web tool to use to share and edit information such as; photos, videos, charts, PowerPoint etc.

Being password protected, this site is safe to use. The creator of the site has the choice of making the site private, accessible for all to see and also able to invite specific members to share and edit. The only problem I found with Wiki WetPaint that it was slow to upload photos.

This would be a useful web tool to use with students in a classroom environment for group work. However I feel this tool would be more beneficial to distance educational students. As mentioned above, distance obstacles can be a major barrier when it comes to education.
With the use of this tool, distant collaborative student/teacher or student/student projects are stream lined to one site that is easy to manage.

Wiki WetPaint is an engaging web tool which would support active learning by achieving cooperative learning. The importance of cooperative learning is documented in a paper by McAlpine and Allen (2007), stating that working with peers helps build diverse forms of knowledge in an active and engaging format.
Thanks
Jim Price

McAlpine, I. & Allen, B. (2007). Designing for active learning online with learning design
templates. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007.
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/mcalpine.pdf

Photo: Retrieved August 10, 2009, from www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net