Are wikis a reliable medium for education? As an educator, my first inclination would be an emphatic “no.” However, I recently ran across an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education that challenged my preconceptions. 1»  After reading and thinking through the article I must first state that there is a huge difference between Wikipedia and a student created wiki-textbook. One is community regulated, and as we all know must be examined and used with care, 2» the other is also community regulated; yet to students, at least according to the article, it is more reliable. This is not to say that a student created wiki-textbook is superior to the standard textbook, or to Wikipedia—all three by the way contain errors. The wiki-textbook is a product of education, this aspect allows for it to stand above other forms of similar media for a few reasons: 1) people tend to prefer reading and trust (or distrust) research from someone they know; 2) research in educational settings tend to be in areas of interest, therefore more care is often taken to present findings accurately (albeit often biased); and as the article pointed out 3) peer-to-peer learning can take place.

It is this last aspect, of peer-to-peer education, which I would like to focus on. The notion of creating an environment where peers teach each other has lodged itself in my mind for quite some time now. The problem always comes back to reliability and it is for this reason sites like Wikipedia (and similar) are often looked down upon. Yet, interaction with peers is an essential and often overlooked facet of education that needs to be utilized—especially in a digital age where people are choosing to interact less and less and become more secluded. Back in 2004, Korby Parnell wrote an excellent article 3»  on the coming changes that wikis will bring to society. More important though, is the way he defined wikis. Parnell likened a wiki to the German notion of Wunderkammern, or “a cabinet of wonders.” This idea carries both community and personal characteristics. Think of a wiki (or even a blog) like a personal museum/library that is open to the public and completely searchable (and in some cases indexable).

1. O’Shea, Patrick, Peter Baker and Jennifer Kidd. “Let A Thousand Wikibooks Bloom.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 55, No. 14 (http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i14/14a02902.htm), November 2008.

2. Concerning Wikipedia, a good and well-balanced overview of strengths and weaknesses may be found by Ken Hunt, “The Wikipedia Problem” Globeandmail.com (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071009.urc-wikipedia2-1016/BNStory/education), October 2007.

3. Parnell, Korby. “Wiki Theory.” Flexwiki (http://www.flexwiki.com/default.aspx/FlexWiki/WikiTheory.html), March 2004.

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