In searching for a Wiki to follow/join/participate in, I found myself wanting to find a Wiki that was centered on Foreign Language/Spanish teaching. After doing a few searches and trying different key words, I found the Wiki Language Links. It was started as a resource for student teachers, and now has areas for student teachers, beginning teachers, and experienced teachers.
I like the fact that it has links to resources, language-specific resources, and a discussion area for teachers to share ideas. This sharing makes it useful for professional development and professional use. These interactive features, and information sharing aspects, are what make wikis so useful to educators. Also, the ability to edit helps create a community where people can share information and answer questions, instead of just looking for help. It makes me want to look for a particularly active Wiki that interests me, and be part of it. The more dialogue and sharing there is, the more useful the Wiki will be. Teachers can share anything from moral support, to organizational suggestions, to specific lesson/unit plans and ideas. There are so many ways to use a Wiki professionally. Finding the right one is probably the trick.
As I think about it, I think that that may be the biggest difference between blogs/RSS feeds and wikis. You read what comes to your RSS feed. You can make comments on a blog. But, with a wiki, you can be part of a group that shares and works together. I think a really successful wiki would be one where the end result is creation, and not just comments replying back and forth.
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The activity in a wiki does make a difference. Some seem to be static with few changes. It seems like someone created them and then forgot about them. I've found a few on web2.0 tools that are really useful as the person creating them keeps them up-to-date, so they are great for keeping up with new development.s
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