Wikis--a source of good or evil?

First a personal note: when I am researching a topic on the internet and stumble across a wiki-site that was obviously done for a class, I find student created wikis to be fun to look at for about 6 seconds before I close it and look for something more reliable. I find that wikis that are open to the public and were not put together by a tech-saavy person to be clutter on the internet. Is this harsh? Possibly, but it is a personal thing--I would rather find a good link to an academic (or reliable) article or data source than find a wiki that quotes this data source and have to mine the wiki to find the link. I also really dislike having to work in not astheticaly-pleasing online resources, like wikis created by people like me with limited tech experience, that have my name on them for all the world to see.

My personal opinions aside, I found these articles interesting. The annoyance and the bitterness displayed for wikis in the Klunder article is nicely juxtaposed by the great writing experience in the Krueger blog. I did ask myself if the annoyance at wikis displayed in the Klunder article came more from poor teaching strategies. Did the instructor spend enough time introducing wikis and having students work on a small collaborative project before introducing the larger assignment? It doesn't appear so. Was it really necessary to use a wiki to prove that all students were contributing equally? Maybe, but I question this because because when students can sit down and physically talk to each other, is it really necessary to write collaborative papers? Although students in the Klueger blog also did not appear to have a lot of training, it seemed that the distance learning format of the course might have made wikis more from the students' lack of ability to sit down and talk together. The key to his success may have been that the wikis literally provided a space for the community to happen, and students were eager participants.

Given these two scenarios, perhaps it is best to state that we, as instructors, should consider both the good and bad aspects of using a wiki.