Mr.Holman, my awesome professor, uses wikis between his class and the classroom of his friend Mike. Here is an article from his website that addresses wikis http://www.teachersfortomorrow.net/1/category/wiki/1.html. Mr. Holman's philosophy is fairly simple to grasp. He believes that students should be in control of their learning and through technology students will not only control their learning, but they inject their own unique imprints on the world. This is not what he said exactly but it was my overall interpretation. I learned a lot from Mr. Holman this semester and not only did he teach us the value of trusting our students, but he trusted us enough to allow us to wonder around the internet in search of "good teaching tools" for our students. Mr. Holman is a tech buff and this interest has led him to realize that students can learn and retain information via technology, but the only barrier to this success is created by the educator.
I will say that teaching Shakespeare is a difficult task for any student, but with the help and aid of a wikispace it can become a land of language and wonder for any student. My students will be able to engage in group activities that will allow them to create their own understanding of Shakespeare. These wikispaces allow students to display their own creations for the rest of the world to view (even if its local) and there is nothing stopping them from continuing to learn and create except the lack of knowledge from their teachers.
I enjoyed making my own wiki pages and in order to understand how they work you have to engage, play and tinker around with it. Here is the link to my wikipage and I hope you enjoy it!!!! http://acrimonious13.wikispaces.com/