Teaching Philosophy

Volume 28, Issue 2, June 2005

Teaching with Tiki

In contrast to traditional content management systems (CMS), TikiWiki (or Tiki for short) is a CMS that not only includes discussion forums, messaging, webmail, chat, file and image galleries, blogs, etc. but also Wikis (an online user-created encyclopedia). Two benefits of using Tiki are that it provides an integrated place where course content like syllabi and handouts can be accessed but also chat and discussion forum functionalities allow for better instructor-student or student-student collaboration. Whereas the former saves departments money with respect to printing, the latter is a practical use of technology in distance learning courses. The author outlines his use of Tiki to teach a distance learning logic course at three to six Kent State campuses as well as offers suggestions (and some cautionary remarks) for how to use Tiki in upper-level seminars in the philosophy. Finally, technical, legal, and pedagogical issues in the use of Tiki like information security and student privacy are discussed.