A Wiki for Education with Curriki

Website: http://www.curikki.org

Grade: A

Cost: Free

I love Wikipedia, and feel that it provides a valuable resource for all of us. Yes, there are some inherent pitfalls because the community at large can edit the information, but in general the information is very good and accurate. This type of media where the community provides the content can be very powerful and can be a great resource for all of us. This type of application is a perfect way for teachers around the world to get together and share lesson plans, resources, worksheets, video, and websites. The people at Curriki have developed and promoted a web site for educators that allow us to use this powerful WIKI technology.

Curriki is more than your average Website; we're a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world.

Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Our name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki' which is the technology we're using to make education universally accessible.

Curriki is the result of work done for GELC - the Global Education and Learning Community - an online project started by Sun Microsystems to develop works for education in a collaborative effort. The leadership team consists of people with a long-time commitment to exploring the use of technology to improve education.

The power of Curriki is in it's members. The more people join and contribute to this site the better and more useful the site will become. This is a valuable resource and I believe the future of educational content on the internet.

There is an inherent downside to this type of system. It will likely become a site that will be invaded by special interest groups trying to push there message through biased lesson plans and materials, but there is nothing new with that. Nearly all current educational resources are already infiltrated with a significant Liberal slant. If you're a Liberal that may be OK, but for others that don't share that viewpoint it can be frustrating. The advantage to the WIKI format is that you may begin to see materials from multiple viewpoints and opinions.

The upside is that we will likely find a site with a wealth of lesson plans, materials, textbooks, and worksheets that are far better than any of the current generic worksheet sites on the web. Individual teachers create amazing things to teach there kids, and through this sharing system we can share and receive from the many brilliant teachers out there. This site is definitely the future of education.