Yacapaca

Exactly one month ago today, I enjoyed a lengthy chinwag with Steve Margetts about wikis in education. Having set the world to rights, and (perhaps rashly) promised Steve free hosting, I blogged the conversation and forgot all about it.

Steve didn’t. He got busy, and exactly four weeks later I find WikiTextbook has sprouted, beanstalk-like, onto the web.

The scaffolding’s still up, certainly, but just look at what he’s already achieved:

• Super, functional architecture
• Great site design
• No less than 167 articles already
• Covers GCSE and A-Level Business studies, with ambitions to cover all subjects
• Sponsored by adverts, so Steve is actually generating income from the site.

What absolutely knocks my socks off is how Steve is generating content at such a phenomenal rate. According to the about page, his stroke of genius is

Teachers and students alike are encouraged to add their own material to the site so that everyone can fully enjoy the benefits of a free WikiTextbook!

Steve believes that schoolkids are capable of writing their own textbooks, given a suitable structure, and he’s prepared to put that belief into action.

That’s revolutionary.