On wikis
One might think, given my aforementioned distaste for online classwork, that I would oppose the use of wikis in class. That is not the case. There’s a substantial difference between wikis and social media, which comes as a result of the different environments they represent. Wikis are powerful, innovative forms of writing which requires a real reimagination of what writing looks like, whereas social media only serves to strip our unconsidered conversation of its civility. Wikis provide a potentially invaluable new medium that writers can, and ought to, become proficient with. They are also difficult to integrate into writing classes, and have not been as successful an experiment as they might be. To start, wikis have several significant benefits to them which social media do not: They’re truly interactive. You’re no longer posting your own ideas in response to another’s. Instead, you have to actually plan your writing along with your collaborators and execute as a group. That’s a...