Online Collaboration with a Wiki in Real Analysis , session on Creative Uses of Emerging Technologies for Mathematics Teaching, MathFest 2008, Aug 1, 2008. PPT slides
Abstract: A wiki is a collection of webpages with streamlined authoring, linking, and collaboration capabilities. This emerging technology has forever changed the nature of encyclopedias and “collective knowledge”, and its utility in the classroom is just beginning to be explored. This talk will focus on two ways in which wiki capabilities were used to enhance a real analysis course: students (i) collaborated on a glossary of terms that they were permitted to use on examinations, and (ii) collaboratively wrote and submitted papers directly to the wiki website. In the end, the wiki encouraged student collaboration, as was expected, but there were also several unexpected positives.
