What is the book about?

This book is a deep extension of the focus and content on my blog, Using Wiki in Education It contains 10 case studies written by teachers that describe how they're using the wiki to transform courses and engage today's students in a range of environments including high school, small college, major research university, online/distance learning and research lab. It is the first book to focus specifically on the wiki in education and be developed and published using a wiki, so it actively demonstrates the tool in action.

Who should read the book?

Teachers, instructional technologists, instructional designers, academic technology consultants - anyone teaching a course, or involved in curriculum development and instructional technology. Academic technology leaders like CIOs, IT directors, and instructional technology directors will also find value in better understanding the wiki and seeing the increasingly vital role it plays in learning environments.

What does it cost?

Two chapters are initially available free, as well as the foreword and acknowledgements. Each month a new chapter will be made available for free until the entire book is available free. During this 8 month period, you can get immediate access to the entire book, as well as the ability to download chapters as PDF files, for $19.

Why publish a book this way?

To set information free.

• To test a new digital publishing model
  I think the wiki is the ideal tool for developing, publishing, then further developing a digital book. Traditionally, publishing signals the end of work on a book, and then it sits static on bookstore shelves for a significant period of time. By contrast, publishing using a wiki means opening the project up to a larger community who can further its development, and the extremely simple nature of the wiki means anyone can contribute without being distracted by complicated technology. This sets the stage for quick, constant construction and refinement of knowledge to smooth the peaks and valleys in knowledge construction
• To make information more accessible
  By publishing online I can set a price that's more reasonable than print because basic expenses like an address (wikiineducation.com) and web hosting are much, much lower than paper & link. It also saves trees, because readers choose whether to print, and can print individual chapters.
• To give chapter authors ownership of their own work
  The publishers I considered working with have stipulations in their contracts that require exclusive publishing rights for print, electronic, and "any other form or media now known or yet to be developed". This just doesn't leave room for the kind of experiment I want to conduct with this project, and it would reduce the rights each author has to their own chapter. Instead, I've adopted a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License so that, "Authors retain copyright to their intellectual content, with Stewart Mader owning copyright to the collected publication." This allows chapter authors the freedom anyone should have to use their own work, regardless of whether it's part of another, larger project.

$19: Digital download - PDF.
$24.95: Paperback