Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for the online insructor is getting the students to collaborate on various projects and activities.

     First came the discussion board; a great system for letting people ask a question, allowing others to answer, but a terrible system for collaboration.  The fundamental problem is that it is a system designed for answering questions; exactly what students do.  When they do answer a question it is all to often the “Discussion Question of the Week” provided by the instructor, with a known answer, little opportunity for critical thinking (because, after all those are easier to grade), and little or no guidance in the form of a rubric to give the student insight into the instructors expectations.

     Further, since students are typically asked to answer the ubiquitious “Discussion Question of the Week,” when do they answer the question?  On the day of, or sometimes minutes, before the due date.

     Blogs, another tremendous tool in the “eLearning Game,” are great for one-to-many communication.  They are an invaluable tool for allowing a student to write about a topic that interests them and for providing the opportunity for others to comment.  They are great tools for students to use to build a “knowledgebase” that they can take from course to course, continually improving and adding to.

     But for true collaboration, nothing compares to a Wiki and the shining star (IMHO) is without question PBWiki.

     A Wiki is the perfect solution for you if…

• You’re tired of waiting for your IT Department to help set you up
• You want to increase student engagement using a safe online wiki
• You’re tired of complicated solutions that nobody uses
• You want a no-hassle way to showcase your students’ work online
• You want to eliminate excuses of lost homework
• You want a central place for your group to collaborate
• You want one place to put your files and thoughts so you can access them anywhere
• You want a partner to share best practices on collaboration

So How Will ths Help Your Students?

     According to PBWiki’s website:

As Mike Lawrence, Executive Director of CUE, noted: “When students write a paper, they’re usually writing for one person: their teacher. When students know their peers will read what they write, students care and they try harder.”

When you use a wiki, your students get a gentle introduction into online collaboration, and they’ll remain engaged beyond the classroom. Many of our educators tell us about their students getting hooked on PBwiki and editing it from home and on the weekends!

Karen Nelson of Vacaville, California says, “I use PBwiki as a website and a student resource. Today after school I got an email from a student asking for the password so he could add content. An hour later I got the wiki notification that the page had been edited by that student. This student has not completed one assignment outside of class yet this year. How great is that!!”

OK…So What’s So Great About PBWiki?

     I’ve been watching the online wiki systems for some time, always with several, what I consider important criteria, in the back of my mind.  Criteria such as:

• Simple and intuitive but not at the expense of functionality or features.
• Cost effective.  Free is good, but I’d be willing to shell out a few bucks
• Education- or Learner-centered philosophy of design.

     The only system I’ve found that not only meets, but far exceeds all the criteria, has been PBWiki.

     PBWiki is one of those organizations that seem to be all too rare these days - They don’t just give lip service to their support of education, they prove it by providing wikis for education at no cost and completely free of the ubiquitious “Google Adsense (Nonsense?)”

     Not sure how to take advantage of Wikis in your teaching efforts?  PBWiki provides a generous collection of both Case Studies and White Papers to help stimulate the “creative juices.”

     While this posting may sound as if I’m on the PBWiki payroll; I can assure you to the contrary.  I’ll become an “evangelist” for any organization that supports education and promotes educational technology as strongly as PBWiki.

     In Part II of this posting I’ll pass on a great conversation I had with Mr. Tom Keugler of PBWiki as well as an offer he has extended to those of you wishing to “take the leap” into real online collabortion.

     In the mean time, stop by PBWiki’s site at http://www.pbwiki.com and see for yourself.