Are Wikis the same as Wikipedia?

When I was in high school, Wikipedia was a banned resource for research. Every teacher I have ever had would scold us severely for even putting that up as a site being used.

Actually, unbeknownst to the teacher, I used Wikipedia as a starting resource for my research. I would scroll down to the bottom and find the links that other people posted.

As I learned in class, Wikipedia is harder to change now because people are diligent in monitoring every detail now.

You are probably asking, "What about Wikis?" I think if we are using Wikis in classroom projects, it's okay. You just have to use tight security and informing students your ultimate authority over it. That would include telling your students that you can see everyone's edits and you get e-mails that tell you who added or subtracted what.

Wikis like Wikipedia is a good resource for students to pool their thoughts and what they researched on a particular topic. It's also an easy way to track class participation.