Wikipedia and PBWiki

Wikispaces is the personal or public websites where we can find a lot of information. They are extremely useful and convenient. First, the website Wikipedia that we are familiar with is a public Wiki. That website includes a huge amount of information, concepts and details. The students can access Wikipedia to get the information they need, and due to its diversity, I believe the learners can find everything they want. Furthermore, there are a lot of languages available on Wikipedia, so that international students will access easily for searching and reading the details. However, there is a problem that not every language page has sufficient information. For instance, some of them only have the detail about definition, no example or other information is available. Therefore, I think these Wiki pages need to be improved, especially from volunteers who can translate the detail from English to other languages. One of the advantages that both public and personal Wiki pages can bring is allowing students to edit the content of the page. It means that the learners will get involve into the construction. The personal, or private, Wiki that I mention here is the Wiki page that we can create by ourselves. The teacher can make a private Wiki page to create a comfortable classroom for his or her students. In that classroom, the learners can contribute by sharing their ideas or rephrasing old concepts on their own words freely. Moreover, if the teacher allows their students to check the Wiki pages of other classes, I think they can learn the strengths and also point out the weaknesses of the others. In other words, they can help each other and improve their own skills. Next, by checking the syllabus on the private Wiki page frequently, the students can follow the learning process easily and logically. Finally, the personal Wiki page can support really well for the learners to prepare a presentation or exchange their ideas, so that they can achieve the best result by connecting with other students. If I have my own Wiki page, I would require my students to contribute their knowledge and then ask other students to check the information, edit it if necessary and then report to the teacher. The advantage how it improves the learners' skills were stated above. 

Learn more about Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

Learn more about PBWiki: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A204JcGQiY0