http://www.ikiw.org/category/wiki-adoption-strategies/I have used both wikispace and weebly at this point and I like wikispace better. I find it easier to organize and there are a lot of options to make it your own. It also seems very user friendly with new people which weebly took time for me to get used to. In addition, I like that you can invite people to come and edit and be members but anyone can view, with weebly you cannot have members. Lastly, I began using weebly for a large project and had a hard time with keeping formatting and inserting scanned items which I grew frustrated with and disliked. The wikispace seems much easier to use and connect other sites to it. I think overall, wikispaces are just easier to use.
In your classroom, you could have students reference a wiki that you make with helpful information for a project, or depending on the age, you could have them create a wiki instead of a project. Research papers seem awful and boring and there is nothing you can do to visually differentiate yours from others and if you chose to have them format their paper in a wiki, they may enjoy the process of doing it on a computer web page and being able to customize it. They can organize the page as they wish in ways that may make more sense to them. They can add images to this and such which would also possibly make the project more enjoyable for the students. These could also be a great way for a group of students to work together on a project since it is something that they can all access easily. I think this would be a great tool for the classroom if the kids are at appropriate ages.
I agree that wiki is a great tool for the students to express their individuality, through the choice of images maybe, and also through organizing the material in their own way. The Yale School of Art website (http://art.yale.edu/) is one great example of it. It is actually a wiki which every graduate student, staff person, or faculty member could edit at any time. I think that it’s a real great idea, especially for Art students, to try their hand in web design and to create an individual look for every page - although the resulting website looks a bit crazy, since all of its pages have a different color scheme and layout, but I guess it’s the price you pay for the freedom of expression :-)
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