The wiki

OK - I attempted to set up a wiki. http://stasko11.pbwiki.com I am not fully convinced yet - I am mostly just playing now and the problem is, most of my documents I would put on my wiki are at school on my computer there and I don't have access to them at home. I will have to remedy this before I try to develop my wiki any further. I am looking forward to seeing what the wiki can do for my classroom. I am trying to determine the best tool to use to allow for journal partners and journal groups to communicate back and forth about topics and themes as well as have them collaborate on projects. I did this last year IN THE CLASSROOM and I hated it. It took too much time and students, I felt, were just going through the motions because of time and space. I like to believe if the means for communicating and collaborating is timeless as well as open space that students will give more and therefore gain more from the experience. A wiki could be the answer to this. I could have student groups create blogs and have student blogs, much like we have in class. This way, even though communication will mostly be in groups, other groups can take a peek at what their classmates are doing and comment and help as well.
Still brainstorming the best way to do this. In order to fully answer this I need to experience the wiki more. I don't want there to be too many places my students have to go. It would be nice to have a one stop place to get syllabus, course work/materials, and collaborate. Most teacher web pages are not interactive, a wiki can definitely be interactive - just how much while still taking care of the business portion of the class room.
So how might I have students create a wikibook...I have to first get use to the idea of giving up some of that control. There is such a sense of paranoia when it comes to teachers allowing students some control over what goes out there, that I first need to get over that. As far as a wikibook-grammar is a huge struggle in my school, having students create a wikibook to help others with grammar would be a great tool - but not one I imagine students would get too excited about. Theories we discuss in class would be educational and more enjoyable to write. A wiki book on theories we are working on throughout the year allows for students to write expository and narrative writing. I worry though about some of the subject matter/stereotyping/responses that would be included.
Some challenges with wiki writing would be similar to classroom projects of collaboration. You are always going to have some students doing the bulk of the leading and the work. Also, some students in my area do not have access to computers so they would, jest because they are lacking the tools, struggle to put in as much as some of their classmates - which would lead to them getting less out of the wiki as well.
I need to play more with my wiki. I really enjoy blogs, I write one for my family http://comfortablechaos1.blogspot.com and I have just started one with images for my photography students in my media class, at http://hhsimages.blogspot.com but I think the wiki would be more valued because it simply looks more educational and the possible uses in the classroom are greater. Blogs were easy to use form the git go, I imagine just playing with the wiki will make it more user friendly. My question is, how do you get students and parents to buy into this?
I know the students the contribute to the photography blog are thrilled about it but those not directly impacted by it could care less. Eventually those contributing will lose their fire if they feel no one else is looking at their stuff. I can see a wiki having the same effect b/c the ownership may not initially be there. It is worth a try though - especially for my juniors with the amount of collaborating and writing they are doing.