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.

(more…)