What is a Wiki?

Wiki is one of my favourite student collaboration tools. The word 'Wiki' comes from the Hawaiian language and means quick or fast. The word Wiki entered the Oxford English Dictionary in early 2007 having been used to describe a particular sort of online editable website for some years prior to this.

In the IT world, a Wiki is a way to make a collaborative website very quickly and extremely easily. You require minimal technical know how to do it and all you need is an internet connection and a web browser. You do not require any special software.

Wikispaces is one of the many places that you can create a Wiki. It is free and very easy to use. Now that you know this, the next time that your child comes home with a shared (or individual) project to do, making it on a Wiki could be one of the suggestions that you make.

If you would like to learn more about Wiki's then here are a few links

• Wiki for collaborative projects
• Wikipedia article about Wiki

New enrolments to Grant get CD

We have, for a number of years now, provided every new student to the school with a CD bundled full of free software that can be installed on home computers and shared with family and friends freely. The software is also installed on all of the computers in the school.

Our vision is for students to be able to freely continue with their learning outside of the school setting.

The software on the CD includes an office package, graphics packages, web development tools, sound editing, as well a various other utilities.

For those who would like to learn about these free software options, the following links may be of use

• The Open Education Disc
• Software Freedom